Noah Lyles announces he is COVID free after Team USA sprinter missed 4X100 relay with infection… but critics think he’s making excuses for 200m | HO

Noah Lyles announced he’s COVID-19 negative after missing the 4X100 relay amid his battle with the illness.

Just don’t tell that to the American sprinter’s critics, who saw his diagnosis as a façade to deflect from his loss in the 200-meter final.

‘Thank God, I am Covid free,’ Lyles wrote on X while posting a photo of his negative COVID-19 test.

‘Oh Woow, your Covid recovery was faster than your 200 meters run,’ one critic responded.

‘Understandable, it’s only detectable when Tebogo is near,’ added another, referring to 200-meter gold medalist Letsile Tebogo.

Lyles earned the bronze medal in the 200-meter final while racing with a 102-degree fever

On Saturday Noah Lyles revealed on social media that he is finally COVID-19 free

The 100-meter champion, Lyles was looking to pull the rare sprint double at the 2024 Paris Olympics before contracting COVID-19 two days before the final. He ultimately finished third in the event, matching the bronze medal he won at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

His coach Lance Brauman has since revealed that Lyles was racing with a 102-degree temperature.

It’s what made that medal, in his last sprint at the Paris Olympics, all the more impressive to Brauman, who described the sprinter’s condition and future Friday in an interview with The Associated Press.

Lyles tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday and finished third in Thursday’s final behind Botswana’s Tebogo and American teammate Kenneth Bednarek.

‘Those guys raced great,’ Brauman said. ‘But to get a bronze medal in 19.70 with a temperature of about 102, that wasn’t too bad.’

Critics remain skeptical that Noah Lyles was ever battling COVID-19

To Brauman, the performance ranks right up there with the one Lyles delivered to win gold in the 100 on Sunday.

‘It’s hard to replace a gold medal in the 100 meters at the Olympic Games … that one was probably the most important medal,’ Brauman said. ‘How did he put it, we talked about it — he will have the most satisfaction out of the bronze.’

The 27-year-old Lyles was back at the track Friday night wearing a protective mask while accepting his bronze medal. He did a lap around the track waving to fans but kept his distance from Tebogo and Bednarek.

There will be other chances, Brauman said, because Lyles is just entering his prime.

‘He’s going to be really good through LA at least, and then we’ll see what happens after that,’ Brauman said of the next Olympics in 2028. ‘I just need him to keep doing what he’s doing.’

Lyles made no secret about his goal to win three gold medals at these Olympics, the way Usain Bolt did on his way to superstardom. He’ll leave Paris short of that goal, but nobody will forget the roller-coaster ride he produced: a .005-second victory in the 100, followed by a bronze while running with COVID.

‘I mean, he was sick,’ Brauman said. ‘People are going to say whatever they want, and that’s fine, but the dude was sick.

‘What he had to do to muscle out that medal, that’s going to be hard to forget.’