Noah Lyles admits to underestimating competition in 100 meter dash at 2024 Paris Olympics

Team USA’s Noah Lyles, who’s expected to compete for gold in track and field, admitted he underestimated competition in the 100 meter dash.

Lyles ran his first heat in the 100 meter dash, arguably the premier event of the Olympics in track and field. But, it ended with a time of 10.04 seconds, finishing second to NCAA champion and Great Britain’s Louie Hinchcliffe (Houston).

Lyles could not break 10 seconds like Hinchcliffe, who ran a time of 9.98 seconds.

“These boys said they ain’t coming to play,” Lyles said, via ESPN. “And I guess that’s my first lesson in underestimating the power of an Olympics. When somebody’s on the line, they say they’re going to give it their all or nothing.

“The plan was first. But it didn’t happen. Second is fine. We’ll make sure from here on out it’s first … Now I don’t have to hold back.”

Once all eight heats were done, Lyles’ 10.04 seconds ranked as the 12th-best time of the day. It resulted in his slowest run in more than a year and the first time he ran at 10 seconds or more in 2024.

“It wasn’t tougher,” Lyles said of the race. “I was more expecting that they would just fall in line, and they didn’t, they took it as ‘I got one shot and I’m going to take it.’ And to be honest, I should have expected that knowing that this is the Olympics. But this is my first time in an Olympic 100. I didn’t. That’s on me, and I won’t let that happen again.”

Lyles is the reigning 100 meter dash World Champion and took home a Bronze Medal in the 200 meter race during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He eventually won a title at the World Championships in that event in 2022 and ’23, in addition to 100 meters.

“I’m the guy,” Lyles declared in December when World Athletics, the governing body of track and field, named him its men’s track athlete of the year. “That’s what I’ve been pushing for. Nobody wants to be not the guy. Nobody wants to be the other. They want to be Him.”