Letsile Tebogo might have the gold medal, but he says he’s not the face of international sprinting.
Tebogo took first place in the 200-meter men’s final on Thursday, beating out Americans Kenny Bednarek (silver) and Noah Lyles (bronze), with the latter revealing he tested positive for COVID-19 before the race.
When asked after by reporters after running in 19.46 that if he was now one of the faces of the sport, he said the spotlight was not for him but actually meant for Lyles.
It’s been a whirlwind week for Lyles, who won the 100-meter final on Sunday in a photo finish at a time of 9.784 seconds.
One day after the race, Lyles said he was “pretty confident” he could take more gold medals at the 2024 games.
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“Pretty confident now, I can’t lie,” he said. “[Bednarek] definitely put up a fast time at [U.S.] trials, and that definitely woke me up,” Lyles said. “I was very proud of him. He’s definitely not going to take how he did here in the 100 lying down. He’s going to say, ‘I’m going after it in the 200.’ Because he knows he can go after it.
“But my job is to make sure that … I’ll just leave it there. I’ll be winning.”
But while Lyles improved on his semifinal time in the 200m final on Thursday, he finished behind Tebogo and Bednarek with a bronze.
After the race, he fell to the ground and was eventually taken off the track at Stade de France in a wheelchair while revealing he had previously tested positive for COVID-19.
“I’ve run with worse conditions, I felt, and we just took it day by day, trying to hydrate as much,” he said after the race. “Quarantined off. I’d definitely say that it’s taken its toll for sure, but I’ve never been more proud of myself for being able to come out here and getting a bronze medal — where last Olympic I was very disappointed [with a bronze medal], and this time, I couldn’t be more proud.”
As for the rest of his Olympics, Lyles posted on Instagram that he is likely done for the rest of these games.
That means he won’t be competing in Friday’s 4x100m relay, giving him one gold for these Olympics.
