Noah Lyles' Fastest 200m Times Leading Up to Paris Olympics

Lyles will go for another medal at the Paris Olympics.
Noah Lyles after winning the gold at the 100m in the Paris Olympics
Noah Lyles after winning the gold at the 100m in the Paris Olympics / James Lang-USA TODAY Sports

If you didn't know who Noah Lyles was before these Paris Games, you absolutely should now. The U.S. sprinter won gold in the anticipated event of the track & field portion of the Olympics: The 100m. Lyles needed some late speed to get it done, but he set a personal record the 100m and beat the silver medalist, Kishane Thompson, by .005 seconds.

Lyles is participating in more than just the 100m race in these Games. He will also participate in the 200m and the 4x100m relay. Here's a full schedule for when and where you can watch him in preliminary rounds, semifinals, and finals.

His 100m PR is fresh at these games. Will he be able to set a new PR for the 200m and/or secure a gold?

Here are his 10 best times in the 200m, per World Athletics:

Personal rank

Time (seconds)

Event

Date

1

19.31

World Athletics Championship

July 21, 2022

2

19.46

Herculis Meeting International

August 10, 2022

3

19.47

London Athletics Meet

July 23, 2023

4

19.50

Athletissima Lausanne

July 5, 2019

5

19.52

Prefontaine Classic

August 21, 2021

6

19.52

Weltklasse Zurich

September 8, 2022

7

19.52

World Athletics Championship

August 25, 2023

8

19.53

U.S. Olympic Team Trials

June 29, 2024

9

19.56

Athletissima Lausanne

August 26, 2022

10

19.61

New York Grand Prix

June 12, 2022

Here is how the event played out in Tokyo:

Medal

Athlete

Time

Gold

Andre De Grasse

19.62

Silver

Kenneth Bednarek

19.68

Bronze

Noah Lyles

19.74

Lyles will be motivated by his U.S. teammate, Kenny Bednarek, who gave him a run for his money at team trials. Bednarek finished seventh in the tightly contested 100m on Sunday.

"Kenny definitely put up a fast time at trials, and that definitely woke me up. And I was very proud of him, and you know he's definitely not going to take how he did here in the 100 lying down, he's going to say 'I'm going after it in the 200.'"

After a bit more diplomacy, Lyles put it simply: "I'll be winning."

Bednarek's best time in the 200m was placed at team trials in late June (19.59).


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Josh Wilson
JOSH WILSON

Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.