Alexandria native and T.C. Williams (now Alexandria City High School) grad Noah Lyles is heading to the Olympics, again.
Lyles tied his personal best in the 100m sprint at 9.83 seconds Sunday in the Olympic trials in Oregon.
Lyles already has an Olympic medal (Bronze in the 200m in the 2020 Toyko Olympics, which were in 2021 due to the global coronavirus pandemic). This year's Summer Olympics in Paris start Friday, July 26, and Lyles will be running in the 100m track event.
Lyles is the son of Keisha Caine and Kevin Lyles and has a brother, Josephus, who is also an elite sprinter. Lyles holds several records in the 100m and 200m track events. According to his Team USA bio from the Olympics in 2021 (the 2020 Olympics were delayed due to COVID-19), Lyles is a also a fan of “music, art, video games, comics, anime and fashion.”
Lyles has made several returns to Alexandria in recent years, including a talk at Alexandria City High School regarding mental health.
He was recently featured on the World Athletics podcast — listen here.
Unfortunately, fellow Alexandria high school grad Kai Cole will not be in the Olympics this year. While he performed spectacularly at a recent MEAC meet, that event was not sanctioned by USA Track & Field. In a statement, Cole wrote: "Despite my best efforts to appeal the decision, it was still denied, and unfortunately, my [Norfolk State] university didn’t fully support me in an effort to get the ruling overturned. Opportunities like this don’t come around very often, so for this to be stripped away from me is truly heartbreaking."
