Can Noah Lyles Catch Usain Bolt?

When Noah Lyles ran 19.50 in Lausanne he became the 4th fastest man over 200 meters. His company is a who’s who of legendary sprinters — Michael Johnson, Yohan Blake, and Usain Bolt. However, not even Usain Bolt was this fast at 21 years of age, Bolt would “only” run 19.75 as a 21-year-old. That’s what grabs me about this generations crop of Sprinting stars… they are extremely good and will be here for the next 2–3 Olympic cycles. Noah Lyles will be 31 in 2028… Justin Gatlin is still competing on this level at 37.

All this to say Noah Lyles is in unprecedented waters, he’s fast right now and could have 15 years left in his career. There’s plenty of time to knock 0.31 seconds off, assuming he can handle the pressure of being the fastest man alive… how can he improve?

Below I will go over how Johnson, Blake and Bolt all improved after running fast times early — it’s just comes with the territory.

Michael Johnson

Michael Johnson is the exception to this list, Johnson aged gracefully but the start to his career didn’t necessarily indicate his future “world’s fastest man” status. The man who would go on to run 43.39 and 19.32 had PRs of 20.07 and 45.23 as a 21-year-old. If anything Johnson represents the idea that if you believe you have the talent, train smart and work on your deficiencies; you can…