Noah Lyles is STILL the Best?! Interview After Winning the 2026 USATF Championships | Post-Race Interview 2026 USATF

Sat, Jul 25, 2026

Noah Lyles soared to a 9.79 (+0.8) 100m to win ANOTHER US Title, his eighth overall US Outdoor Title. Full 100m Results --- Noah Lyles – 9.79 Ronnie Baker – 9.875 Kenny Bednarek – 9.880 Christian Coleman – 9.93 Courtney Lindsey – 9.97 Brandon Hicklin – 10.00 Lawrence Johnson – 10.022 ZaChaeus Beard – 10.023 Maximilian Thomas – 10.10

Video Transcript

Woo!

How'd you get back here?

I don't know.

I just walked back here.

You know, you, you slip in at the right moments, and they pr- they, they don't notice anything.

Here, r- rock with Coach B. St-stick-- Come on, sir.

Stick with Coach B.

Yes, please.

All right.

What do y'all wanna talk about?

What was your one statement that you think you made to- I think I made that I'm still the world's fastest man statement.

Yeah, okay.

That's what I think.

And I think that I was playing around.

So I think everybody better tighten up, 'cause if they playing around, then shoot, I must be winning tag.

Could you tell you were that in you today?

You said what?

Could you tell you were that nine seven coming into the track?

Well, last Thursday we did a practice, and I ran a hand time nine six.

So yeah, I knew that nine seven was coming soon.

Is that the fastest you've ever run track?

On the straight, yes.

In twenty twenty-two we did, like, starting from the one fifty to the middle of the straightaway hundred, right before world champs, and I ran, like, a nine five.

Oh, wow.

Hand, hand time.

Hand, these are all hand times, hand times.

But this wasn't, like, a flying start.

This was behind the blocks.

No, this was at the blocks, yeah.

Okay.

No, yeah, yeah.

How much confidence do you take from- All right.

All right those kinds of training in the nine hundreds?

Yeah, a lot of training is different.

I keep flying to cities, so I gotta train at random tracks.

So that's very different.

But you just get the job done and, you know, I was at Rice with my brother in Houston, and I went on that track, and I'm looking at the times, and I'm like, "Dang, that is slow."

And my brother, his coach had to come over to let me know this track is slow, and I was like, "Good, 'cause my feelings were about to be hurt."

How much confidence do you take from, like, those kind of time trials in practice versus what you do in races?

Like, is it times for times that gets you that confidence then?

It's practice is on practice.

Seeing it once is nice to see.

Seeing it twice is a confidence booster.

Seeing it three weeks in a row, that's, that's knowing consistency.

That's, okay, it's gonna hit one of these days.

How do you feel about the race technically?

Technically, I think it was the best race I've had so far.

You know, Christian was on it.

You know, it was starting to look like twenty nineteen Christian out there.

And I was like, "Hey."

Coach was like, "Just put your hand in your pocket and don't let him go."

And whenever you take the first two steps, and I was like, "Ooh, yep, my hand is right in that pocket."

I'm like, "Yeah, this is my race to win."

We've seen you at some of the World Cup games.

Do you take any inspiration from those, seeing other sports?

I mean, I love watching any other sport.

That doesn't mean I always understand it.

Yeah.

But, you know, I, I try to do as much research.

You know, I was doing a lot of research 'cause I was in Europe when the World Cup started, so it's on every TV.

And, and I, you know, I'm on YouTube, and I'm like, "What the heck is offsides?

This don't feel like the same offsides I'm used to."

And I'm learning, like, how the, the system works and how teams work and play, play-ins and then qualifiers.

And I'm like, "Okay, I'm starting to get this."

So now we're at the World Cup final, and I'm over here, you know, whispering to Janelle, "Yeah, see, Spain just got so much defense on it."

She's like, "Baby."

I'm like, "You don't know that."

All of a sudden, a huge fan is like, "See, Spain's defense is just, you know, super strong."

I do my research.

I do my- Someone was over here.

Yeah, the hundred's all about attention to detail.

What are those conversations you're having with your coach to perfect your form on a day-to-day basis?

Today coach just said, "Make sure that your shin angles are attacking and going down the track."

Because I was pretty upset actually in the first round and in the warm-up for the semis.

Like, I was like, "Hey, I'm not reaching, you know, my specific spot, my seven steps."

And he was like, "Don't even worry about that.

You're moving down the track.

That's all you need to worry about."

And I was like, "All right."

So I threw out the seven steps, and I just said, "As long as I'm running down the track, let's treat this like running a fly.

You know, the wind's at our back.

Let's use it."

What was the mindset going into today's race?

Today's race?

More.

More, more, more.

That's what me and my therapist were talking about this morning, like, going in with the idea of just, you know, asking for more with every step.

He's like, "All right.

We're moving fast.

Let's ask for more.

Let's run faster and faster.

Keep going."

Almost like you're running down a hill, and you can't control your speed, that type of energy.

That's what we were focusing on today and the mindset that we had throughout the whole day.

Now, obviously, it's an off year.

There's, like, a lot of you holistically throughout the week just kind of, like, fresh.

Why was it important for you to show up today?

Shoot, I'm just having fun.

No, the real reason that I'm here is I needed track meets.

You know, just because it is an off year doesn't mean that I plan to run slow.

I'm not showing up to run slow.

This is me being me, and being me is dominant, being consistent.

And I knew that I was like, "Hey," Janelle told me, "Take this year to just iron out everything."

Like, balls to the wall, so to speak.

You know, don't let anything left on the table.

You know, you're on-- you're in, what, your peak years.

I just turned twenty-nine.

You know, you're still in your peak years.

Like, use it to your advantage.

I said, "You know what?

You're right."

So we chose our track meets.

We just said, "We're just gonna keep flying, keep moving.

Yeah, we're gonna have fun," but, you know, we, we had, we have a really big break about to happen now because of Commonwealths and because of Europeans, so I won't see another track meet until, Lausanne.

So that's, about, shoot, three, almost four weeks.

So I was like, "I need track meets."

And what better place to have, you know, as many rounds as I can in the hundred and two hundred at USAs.

It's been five years, bro, from the victory in ten months.

Woo, ten years.

So how have you been able to stay this fast and still learn at seven fifty-three?

Work on your health.

I got a great team, medical team.

I got a great coach.

I'm constantly trying to learn, constantly trying to get better every year.

No-- I never go into the same year thinking, "Okay, I gotta be like I was last year."

No, it's like, "What is it this year that we're gonna work on?

What's the new thing?

What's gonna progress us down the line?"

and it was funny be- You said what?

What is that for twenty twenty-six?

Twenty twenty-six was don't leave anything on the table.

You know?

Get back into Pilates.

Get back into, you know, stretching every day.

Get back into taking my vitamins every day.

Make sure that we're gonna find the best meal plan that we possibly can.

So when we're going into twenty-seven and twenty-eight, everything, the blueprint's written We're just gonna keep adding a little bit more juice every time we go into the next year, and we're just gonna watch the consistency drop, and the average of my speed just increase throughout each year really.

Safe to say that crowd today was absolutely electric.

What's it feel like racing at National Championships in New York City for the first time in like two years?

Yeah, I've been here at, Icahn Stadium for quite a few years.

It's funny because my coach, he's had many athletes who've come here, and he said, "Oh, my athletes run fast here."

And I'm like, yeah, I've had some great New Balance Grand Pr- or, Grand Prix here, but it's been a while since I've won the U- Thanks, man.

The, US championships.

I was like, I gotta get that back under my belt.

And, I was war- warming up on here Monday, and I was like, ooh, this track is fast.

I'm like, as long as the crowd is giving it, I know that this is gonna be an amazing track meet.

When you talk about wanting for more, asking for more- Yeah two nine sevens today, how much more do you think you have for 200 here?

Well, shoot, if I had a win like the girls had, man, that would've been another nine five, or then a 75.

Like, I'm like, dang.

Like, is it 'cause I'm Adidas?

Come on.

I know I win, but still, like, don't you want the best show?

No, I'm joking.

But yeah.

I mean, why- I mean, I'm not even doing what I know I can do.

We're not, we're not at peak.

We're not at perfect technique.

We're nowhere near that.

So I'm gonna keep asking for more.

Why, why settle for less?

'Cause there's- Noah, we just watched Josh Kerr declare that he was gonna break a world record in the mile, and then he went out and did it.

Yes, sir.

Do you think we'll ever see you do something like that after, you know, you're saying you ran some hand time 9.6, 9.5 or just- I mean, I did in the 150.

You want more?

Oh, you selfish thing.

Nah, if I mean, I think, I'm not gonna say that it's easier to break a world record.

I'm just gonna say that the wind and the day, it has to be perfect, and Josh caught a great day, and he was obviously ready for it.

Unfortunately, that's just not something that you can do as easily in the, in the s- hundred and in t- two hundred.

To be honest, in any, any race.

You just can't do that.

So he, he caught what I'd call a miracle, and he was ready for the miracle.

He was ready to catch it.

And I, I'm making sure that every day I'm ready to catch a miracle, and I think that today I was ready to catch anything that the, so every, anything and everything they had to, to throw at me.

And I think I took full advantage of that.

So when I say that I'm gonna keep pushing for more, that's me saying that I'm not gonna be satisfied with just a fast time.

I'm gonna be satisfied when I walk out into the sport as the greatest of all time.

Noah, you've had a lot of highs, but also some lows, especially in the last year.

How would you describe this season of life that you're in right now?

We- weird.

Weird, for sure.

I am in the stage of my life where I am now on the other side of my s- my career, and I have spent almost, I'd say, a good 75% preparing for my exit.

Whether that's how am I gonna be making my money?

How am I gonna be running my business?

Who's gonna be helping me to run my business?

And then, just how I'm gonna have kids, have a family, grow, and yeah, the, a lot of that stuff.

So that's what I'd say I've been focusing on, and thankfully, this has been an off year where I've had time to actually sit down and figure that out.

I'm not saying that I've figured everything out, but I'm trying, 'cause I don't wanna be caught off guard.

Noah, you're obviously a showman, and the crowd got into it.

What does that do for you?

'Cause obviously the crowd is hype, but, like, what does that do for you?

Gives me everything.

A race without a crowd is a boring race.

It'll be, you'll see a slow Noah that day.

I'll win, but it won't be fun, I'll tell you that.

Who are you having to fight, Goku or Boksung?

Well, he's telling me, what, the One-Punch Man destroy the world with one punch?

I know.

Well, Goku can do that with one ki blast.

Okay.

Uh-huh.

Good job, man.

Appreciate it, man.

Good stuff.

Appreciate you, dog.

All right, coach is saying let's go cool down.

I gotta go pee in a cup.

I'll see y'all tomorrow.

That's the good thing to say