Rebel Noah Lyles revolutionizes Oregon by catching gold and breaking Michael Johnson's 200m record

Noah Lyles hands together, imitating Goku and his life wave from the

He has just crossed the finish line at Hayward Field, undisputed gold in the 200m, fourth best time in history, US record (19.31s), already ahead of the legend Michael Johnson, and he feels like a

.

Invincible.

He rips the kit across his chest, screams, and as the jumpsuit falls to his waist, he reveals some Olympic rings tattooed on one side, but he points to the other side, where a word is written: “Icon.”

The term sums up the ambition of the

.

Lyles (25 years old, Gainesville, Florida), does not conceive normality and discretion.

He hates them almost as much as losing.

He seeks the American to be something more than a fast boy: to transcend.

He has said it by giving the example of figures like Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps, with personalities that go beyond the border of sports.

And he has the wood to follow in his footsteps as a reference thanks to an expansive character: he takes his first steps in music, he exhibits his devotion to

, designs clothes for Adidas, his brand, and in the last week alone he has criticized the racism present in American society and has participated in a debate on mental health at the University of Oregon with the state governor, two of the issues that most concern at street level, where he is already an idol for many.

On Monday, when he celebrated his birthday by passing the first round of the Oregon World Championships in Athletics, Lyles wrote this message on Twitter: “Today I turned 25!

A brand that for African Americans is a great milestone.

At this point in a black man's life, we are jailed for life, killed at gang-related events, or killed just because of the color of our skin.

So when I say I'm glad I made it to 25, I mean it!"

The sprinter, now the third man along with Calvin Smith and Usain Bolt to win two consecutive 200m world championships (he won Doha 2019), was the executioner this Friday of his great rival, Erriyon Knighton, who at 18 years old has been breaking all Bolt's records in his ascent, and he got a bronze (19.80s) that positions him as the youngest to win a metal in the test in the history of the world championships, and the second youngest of all disciplines.

Between the two, Kenneth Bednarek (19.77s) slipped in to sign the American triplet.

"Today is my day.

I have finally achieved what I dreamed of”, said Lyles at the end.

He has lived a long emotional journey to get where he is.

In August 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, she explained that she had started taking antidepressants to stop thinking "without the dark undercurrent in mind that nothing really matters to her."

And that this was "one of her best decisions" of her.

Used to going to therapy since he was a child, when he suffered from depression, he was a victim of

—”I didn't think I was handsome, I didn't have much confidence in myself, he says in a video in which he talks about his childhood—

and it was difficult for him to overcome the divorce of his parents, who were also passionate about athletics —his father Kevin won gold with the 4x400 relay in the USA at the 1995 World Cup in Goteborg—.

Since then, Lyles has made her support of the mental health cause personal.

Recently I decided to get on antidepressant medication.

That was one of the best decisions I have made in a while.

Since then I have been able to think with out the dark undertone in mind of nothing matters.

Thank you God for mental Health 🙏🏾

— Noah Lyles, OLY (@LylesNoah) August 2, 2020

Before the Olympic qualifiers for Tokyo, Lyles stopped taking the pills because he felt they affected his performance.

The passage cost him, to the point that he admitted to having burst into tears during a conversation with his girlfriend about how difficult the year had been.

His performance at the Games didn't help either.

He was the favorite, and when he got the bronze, the response to the press was unbecoming of someone who has just won a medal.

"Boring," he said, annoyed like a child being forced to play a game he hates.

Lyles also has another more controversial and arrogant face.

Young Knighton, the antithesis of Lyles' ostentatious personality, more serious and restrained in his public appearances, interested in studying medicine until elite athletics made him doubt it, suffered it in the flesh.

The incident, whose photo went around the athletic world, occurred when Lyles beat him in qualifying for the World Cup and pointed his finger at him even before finishing, a gesture that annoyed Knighton, who, when interviewed at the end, said: “the work It is not over, it never ends”, giving rise to speculation about their bad relationship.

The difference in styles, one formal, the other spontaneous;

their simultaneous explosion, (although Knighton still has the advantage of youth), and that possible confrontation feed a rivalry that this Friday was palpable in the big question that everyone was asking.

Who will win?

Lyles or Knighton?, in what can become a duel that helps athletics grow, whose public enjoys closed fights more than incontestable hegemonies.

Given the growing rumors, Knighton wanted to lower the tension this week.

And he described Lyles as a good friend who helps him improve.

"We try to push each other on the track as much as we can."

This Friday it was Lyles who pushed the most.

He had the fourth fastest reaction time, but in the 100m he already commanded without question (10.15s), ahead of Bednarek's 10.26s and Knighton's 10.31s.

At the finish line he entered in 19.31s, and that means, nothing more and nothing less, that breaking Bolt's record (19.19s) can stop being a chimera.