Trinidadian retired sprinter Ato Boldon has advised Noah Lyles to watch his interaction with the public and his fellow competitors.
The three-time Olympic bronze medallist, speaking in an interview with Coach’s Desk TV, Boldon noted that he was shocked by the amount of hate Lyles received despite winning two medals at the Paris Olympics. The triple world champion claimed the Olympic 100m gold medal and won bronze in the men’s 200m.
Boldon noted that watching Lyles being mocked during Letsile Tebogo’s homecoming was a surprising turn of events and added that how he is treated by Jamaicans is not how other Olympic champions are treated.
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“Something bigger is going on with Noah now and it’s really shocking for me to see. Noah is the Olympic 100m champion and all I see that he gets now, is hate because he’s running and he’s talking a lot. The NBA players hate him because of the whole world champion thing, right?” Boldon said.
“And then Tebogo dissing him, I’m looking at the stands and they have guys in wheelchairs in Botswana. When has a 100m Olympic champion gotten this much hate and I realise that Noah is going to have to regulate how he interacts with the public a little bit because the one thing that the 100m Olympic champion is supposed to have is adulation and respect,” he added.
He added that the hate was also displayed immediately after he won the men’s 100m final in Paris. Boldon noted that Jamaican fans were not happy about his win, insisting that it was Thompson who won the race.
Lyles crossed the finish line milliseconds ahead of Thompson but they both clocked 9.79 seconds. Fred Kerley completed the podium in a time of 9.81 seconds.
“Noah came out of the Olympics with a gold and bronze medal and you can’t tell because first of all, some Jamaican fans claimed that Kishane Thompson was the one who had won and they did not want to debate about that,” he added.
