Noah Lyles, the liability

And Andre de Grasse, the KING !!!

I had a different post rocked and ready to go for this morning—

(it was scheduled to be sent out at 3pm, and bar any additional Olympic dramatics, you should get it in your inbox sometime next week!)

—and then, earlier this very afternoon, I managed to catch the men’s 4 x 100 meter relay team final which was ran at the Stade de France of Paris, France, as part of the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad… LIVE on my television. And as the French would say, mon dieu, Otters.

Above is a link to the CBC telecast of this relay! I imagine if you’re one of my many American Otters, you likely can’t watch this video. Sorry about that. I would link to the NBC footage of it but I’ve been geoblocked as a Canadian resident. Please Google the footage for yourself.

So here’s the thing. Athletics are wicked. I know we only care about them every four years, but one day they’re going to be a popular annual thing that everyone watches and I can’t wait for that day. In the meantime, though: Olympic track and field makes for RIVETING television.

Sure, we don’t have Usain Bolt lighting up our televisions anymore, and the sport is still reeling from the impact of his absence, but there are still SO many stars in track and field these days—especially American ones—who deserve a helluva lot more coverage than what they currently get. And we are def gonna talk about them in the weeks ahead. First up: Noah Lyles.

Lyles, who grew up in Gainesville, Florida, is the face of American athletics at a pivotal time for the USTAF, America’s national governing body for track and field. Los Angeles is hosting the next Olympics in 2028. Just imagine an American winning the 100m at the L.A. Coliseum. Of course NBC decided to shove a showman like Lyles into American faces and position him as Bolt’s heir apparent. He’s obviously a hell of an athlete. He’s brash and boisterous, and I’m not a huge fan of all his antics. But for the most part—for the most part—he doesn’t just talk the talk. He runs the run.

Lyles won the 100m earlier in these Games (by a literal hair, but still), and then he got bronze in the 200m. After finishing that 200m final, he collapsed to the ground in total exhaustion. Which, sure, right? I do the same thing after running 20 meters, let alone 200.

But here’s the thing. The dude had COVID. He ran. The 200m final. With COVID.

I don’t know about y’all, but that’s a boneheaded move to me. Selfish, stupid, silly.

I understand the dilemma—you want to rep your country and get a medal hanging around your neck. I get it. You’re an elite, elite athlete who wants to win at all costs. But Noah, buddy! COVID is still a thing. And your health is bigger than anything in its way. Even bigger than the Olympics.

Lyles is totally at fault here—and so is the IOC, the governing body of the Olympics, which I wrote ranted about years ago¹. If Lyles got COVID in Tokyo, he’d have to withdraw from his events. But the IOC chose to rear its ugly head and eliminate those protocols; with it came Lyles choosing to show up without a mask and compete, endangering his fellow athletes along with himself.

So how does this 4x100 relay come in? Lyles withdrew from its final. He was supposed to run Team USA’s anchor leg. He was supposed to be The Guy. He was supposed to cross the line in first place for his country.

Which is not to say that Team USA was completely screwed over because of this decision. They still had Kenny Bednarek, Fred Kerley, Christian Coleman—stacked as hell.

But Canada’s relay team is clutch as hell.

Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brandon Rodney, and Andre de Grasse won bronze at Rio 2016, silver in Tokyo, and gold at the 2022 world championships in Eugene, Oregon. Save for de Grasse—who has a 200m gold from Tokyo, plus a slew of silvers and bronzes—none of those guys are big stars outside of Canada. I only know their names because I’m a Canadian sports fanatic with no life.

But combine those four and they make a phenomenal team. They work together. They pull it together. And on the grandest of stages, they rarely fail to make us proud.

And here’s the kicker: at an earlier track meet this spring, a reporter asked Lyles if he saw Canada as a threat for the relay in Paris.

"Who?” he said, laughing. “Who?”²

Gold medal in the face³, that’s who!

It was so ridiculously epic. There was a bad pass of the baton between Christian Coleman and Kenny Bednarek that disqualified Team USA from contention. The Canadians nearly botched one of their passes, too, but somehow kept it together. And on the anchor leg, de Grasse was a meteor, maple syrup just flowing through his veins like the Donovan Bailey reincarnation⁴ that he is, finishing just ahead of Great Britain and South Africa for gold.

It was Canada’s first relay medal since the 1996 Atlanta Games, when Donovan Bailey and co. won—a legendary moment in the history of Canadian sports, a relay I watched so many times as a kid.

And with today’s win, de Grasse didn’t just tie the Canadian record for Olympic medals (7!)—he created a new heritage moment for our country.

Don’t mess with Andre. Don’t mess with us.

1. I don’t think this Substack exists without me writing that essay—that’s how much fun it was to write. I think it holds up well. Read it if ya wanna!

2. This Donovan Bailey quote about Michael Johnson has haunted the U.S. for 20, 35 years.

3. O Tim and Sid my beloveds. I don’t even know if there’s an American equivalent for their brand of sports takes and jokes. Loved watching them growing up. Tim now does sports highlight shows for Sportsnet here in Canada, and Sid hosts a Canadian breakfast TV show. I’m still not used to it!

4. Donovan Bailey is alive and well.