PARIS – If you’re self-absorbed because you brought COVID to the Stade de France in search of gold, it’s actually worth noting that American sprinter Noah Lyles and other track and field athletes are also self-funded.
That is, they are paid to win; races and medals, titles, fans and sponsors on social networks. They’re independent contractors, thugs, and gunslingers whose competitive careers last as long as they’re, well, competitive. And if they don’t do everything they can to maximize their potential, whether physical or financial, then they might feel that the only user misled through their possible options is the guy or woman in the mirror.
So everyone is looking for an advantage, the exclusive 1 or 2% that makes the difference between a competitor and another that also competes. In Lyles’ case, that meant staying silent for two days about a positive COVID test, so he wouldn’t tell his competition in Thursday’s 200-meter final what state he was in.
Asking the loquacious Lyles to keep quiet about anything else is a lost cause, but it’s a secret he’s willing to swallow because of the perceived benefit.
“We wanted to stay close to the chest,” a (finally) masked Lyles told the media in the combined area after the race. “The other people who knew were the medical staff, the coach, my mother. We didn’t want everyone to panic, we wanted them to be willing to compete. We try to make this as loose as possible.
“I’m competitive. Why would you give them a credit for you?”
In your profession, and in this scenario, this is the central question. For the rest of us, the challenge might well be the common good. She brought COVID into the call room, which is not a fancy space. He wasn’t wearing a mask and didn’t let any other athlete in that room know that he shouldn’t get too close.
His compatriot Kenny Bednarek didn’t know it, and he’s an American teammate. Except that’s not the case. Bednarek and Lyles only became teammates when they were asked to be part of the U. S. men’s 4× 100-meter relay team. A number of US troops, which is now unlikely. Lyles was fit to run on his own on Thursday, but he made the decision not to run for his relay team on Friday, even though the intervening 24 hours might have made a difference in his power point and his contagion. Do with it what you will, but Bednarek didn’t care.
“I don’t think it puts me in danger at all. I take care of my body. When it comes to getting sick, it’s rare for me. When I found out, it wasn’t too bad. He went there and did his most productive while he’s sick. I hope it gets better.
That couldn’t have happened in Tokyo three years ago, when Olympians were performing in a bubble and a positive COVID test was reported and Lyles would have had to withdraw from the event and go into quarantine. But there’s no mandatory COVID protocol in place at the track and box venue, or anywhere else here, so Lyles can show up without a mask. It is his vocation.
In a statement, USA Track & Field said: “Our number one commitment is to protect Team USA athletes while respecting their right to compete. After a thorough medical evaluation, Noah decided to compete tonight. We respect his decision and continue to closely monitor his condition.
Letsile Tebogo, the Botswana who won the 200 meters, said he wondered why Lyles was alone in the call room, but when he informed him of the COVID diagnosis, Tebogo was not bothered by Lyles’ presence. At least, not more than usual.
“I wouldn’t say we were in danger because it’s not a touch sport. Even in the warm-ups in the call room, he was there alone. I wondered why. I didn’t need to make assumptions about what might be going on. .
COVID hasn’t actually spread through all of those Games, but it’s not hard to believe that Lyles contracted the disease. His mouth is quite open and he has the opportunity to put his foot in it, which is not hygienic.
Tebogo also asked if he was fit to be the face of athletics.
“I can’t be the face of athletics because I’m not an arrogant or loud user like Noah Lyles, so I, Noah, am the face of athletics. “
Lyles is the mouth of athletics, of course. From time to time, he’s the jerk of athletics, his antics going beyond limits.
But they discover the guy and pay him. He does irritating things, he does cool things. He won the hundred meters and without COVID, he could well have achieved double the sprint. Instead, he finished third and brought COVID to his workplace, then posed. As a sympathetic, even heroic character, he temporarily quarantined himself in a hotel near the athletes’ village to keep everyone safe.
“It affected my performance. I had to take a lot of breaks. . . I coughed all night. I’m more proud of myself than anything else, to come here to win a bronze medal with COVID.
Egocentric? Certainly. But unique?Apenas. No there was a single athlete in the structure who had made a precautionary error; not with an Olympic medal just two hundred meters away.
dbarnes@postmedia. com
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