Noah Lyles Delivers at 2025 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix

Noah Delivers!

Noah Lyles is the Olympic champion in the 100 meters. His race in Paris will be discussed for years. It was a race for the ages. At the very end of the race, he moved past Kishane Thompson to take the gold.

Those moves, the self-control and life experience of a champion athlete, were the difference between Noah Lyles’s winning the gold and Kishane Thompson’s losing the gold. In my mind, gold was fleeting for the young Jamaicans.

Kishane Thompson will probably have his day sometime, but 2024 Paris was not his day.

Forensically, I confirmed that Noah Lyles was already feeling out of sorts in the 100-meter final. Noah Lyles pulled it out, which shows his drive, desire to excel, and the MoJo of the champion athlete.

Noah Lyles loves to compete. He competes when he is fit and relies on Lance Brauman, his coach, for the workouts and training that make him fit and give him confidence. Lance Brauman smiling before a race happens infrequently, as there are always issues to manage and unfortunate circumstances.

On the day of the Paris final, I must have rewatched the 100-meter men’s final 20 different times. I wanted to let my brain realize what my eyes had seen: Noah Lyles moved into the lead with just meters to go, but his acceleration was key, and there was no way Mr. Thompson could respond.

In November, this writer sat down with Noah Lyles to chat on topics dear to Noah’s heart, as we do once a year. He explained the Paris 100 meters and 200 meters to me, his thoughts on the Grand Slam Track, and his thoughts on elevating the sport.

Noah Lyles sees the quandary he is in. Mr. Lyles makes an extraordinary living by putting together lightning-fast 100-meter and 200-meter races. He could rest on his laurel, but he does not.

Lyles has shaken things up, and he has many supporters, including his good friend and fellow gold medalist Rai Benjamin, who is also represented by Global Athletics & Marketing.

Noah Lyles desires to be the greatest 100-meter and 200-meter sprinter in history, the G.O.A.T. As many of you note, he is also a sports entertainer. For our sport to be a top-ten global sport, Noah Lyles has to attract young fans and make them watch it.

When I spoke to Noah (the interview will be published this spring) in November in Las Vegas, he noted the following: if he ran a fast race, and no one saw it, did he really run the race? In a nutshell, that is his issue with Grand Slam Track (GSM announced their coverage deal between CW Network, NBC, and Peacock). In my estimation, this will not move Noah Lyle’s needle. In this first year, GSM can  afford not to have Noah, as there will be some challenges (always in new events), but GSM will learn and evolve).

Noah Lyles came into the 2025 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix as the headliner. Let me be clear, New Balance brought in athletes from around the planet to showcase the meet, their Track, and their brand. But, it was not by accident that Noah Lyles is the last event; his event features 2016 Olympian Trayvon Bromell, an NB ambassador, and 2021 Tokyo Olympic gold medalist at the 100 meters, Marcell Jacobs, who has the X moniker, @crazylongjumper.

Marcell Jacobs was a former long jumper with an American GI father and an Italian mother. Somewhere, Marcell said: “ My fast twitch muscles may come from the United States, but my heart is Italian.” He is close with his Italian mother, who raised Marcell in Italy.

Marcell won the 100 meters in 2021, returned, and won the European Outdoors in 2022, the Indoors in 2021, and the World Indoors in 2022. Outdoors, he experienced injuries and had to withdraw from the 100m in Eugene.

Here’s the deal: Marcell is the finest sprinter in Europe. He beat the Americans at the Tokyo Fair and Square, and his relay leg won Italy gold in the 4×100 meters. No one gives Olympic medals away for free, and there is no straightforward Olympic final. Jacobs’s power is scary. His Olympic title can never be taken away.

While Noah Lyles has been coached by Lance Braumann since he was 17, Marcell has had two coaches. He is now with Rana Reider, a highly regarded coach in Florida. Reider is not without his own controversies, but he and Jacobs do well together, and the Italian gold medalist needed a change.

So, this 60-meter race at New Balance was the first time two Olympic 100-meter gold medalists had raced. The fans and sponsors were pumped, and the track was electric!

In heat 1, Trayvon Bromell, New Balance’s top sprinter, won the heat, running in 6.63. PJ Austin also ran 6.63, and the 2021 Olympic champion, Marcell Jacobs, ran 6.69. Signor Jacobs was not happy.

Okay, editorial comment. In observing Signor Jacobs, one sees a supremely confident athlete but also one who realizes his predicament. Jacobs won the most popular event in the Olympics, the 100-meter. He defeated everyone who ran and then sustained injuries; that is where the self-doubt comes in.

It was not that Marcell Jacobs ran a bad race; he ran against Trayvon Bromell, an athlete who has battled injuries but is a man of supreme faith and talent. We have not seen the best of Trayvon Bromell yet.

In the second heat, Noah Lyles, after his intro and playing to the crowd, ran a 6.55 in only his second season race (he ran 6.62 in the semi and final last weekend).

In second, Terrance Jones ran 6.59. Then, Nigeria’s Udodi Unwuzurike ran 6.66, pushing Marcell Jacobs out of the final, or so we thought.

Mr. Onwuzurike declined to run the final, so the race that 4,000-plus fans dreamed of, the clash of the Olympic champions, would happen.

In the final, Noah Lyles used his incredible acceleration to win in 6.52, a seasonal best. Terrence Jones, BAH, took second in 6.57, with PJ Austin in 6.60. Olympic champion from Tokyo Lamont Marcell Jacobs, Italy, ran 6.63, much better than his heats (watch for our interview with Signor Jacobs), and Trayvon Bromell ran 6.64, taking fifth.

The crowd was ecstatic. Their hero had won, and the Olympic champion and medalist had both run well.

After the race, I caught up with Noah and told him about my travels from Dubai (a sixteen-hour flight, then a two-hour flight) to see him race. Noah beamed from ear to ear! “ I like that, “he retorted.

As of today, the NB Indoor was the last race of the indoor season for Noah Lyles, but do not be surprised if Noah enters the USATF Indoor. This writer will find it doubtful if Mr. Lyles competes in Nanjing, the World Indoor 2025. Noah Lyles was to focus on Tokyo 2025.

Noah Lyles is on a mission, converting one sports fan at a time, and there are, many potential fans to be brought to the world’s greatest sport. Noah Lyles loves the challenge. He loves the fans, the hype, the pressers, the interviews, all add to his energy level.

But make no mistake, Noah Lyles has this platform because he focuses on athletic excellence. He will back to his training on Tuesday, my guess in Florida, as he prepares for 2025.

Noah Lyles delivered in Boston. As he did last year. The Road to Tokyo has begun for Noah Lyles, and  as the poet Robert Frost wrote,

“The woods are snowy, dark, and deep, But I have promised to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.”