The reigning 100m Olympic champion Noah Lyles has made no secret of his ambitions, to cement his status as the undisputed king of sprinting in this era. Yet, while Lyles continues to chase individual glory, a persistent question looms over his legacy.
For Lyles, the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo is about more than just adding another medal to his collection. It’s about solidifying a legacy in a discipline where icons like Usain Bolt still cast a long shadow.
And while his 100m title defense will be one of the marquee events in Tokyo, a curious and unexpected subplot is unfolding in the background, one where Canadian sprinters, often seen as rivals, are now some of his most vocal supporters.
In a recent episode of The Final Leg Track & Field YouTube show, Canadian track analyst and former sprinter Anson Henry joined Coach Rob and Anderson Emerole in a candid conversation about Lyles’ place in history.
What started as a debate over whether Lyles could claim a third consecutive World Championship 100m title quickly turned into a broader appreciation of his resilience and greatness.
“If you’re talking about the best 100-meter sprinters ever, yeah, he’s in there. If he wins again, he’s in the GOAT conversation,” Henry boldly stated.
Coach Rob added, “When you stop betting against people because you realize you’d lose a lot of money — that’s greatness.”
But while Lyles may be winning hearts and respect on the track, it’s in the relay events where Canada has managed to flip the script, and, in the process, chip away at the U.S.’s sprinting dominance.
At the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Canada snatched gold in the men’s 4x100m relay for the first time since 1997, narrowly edging out the U.S. The rivalry escalated further this year when Canada made history by clinching the inaugural mixed 4x100m relay title at the World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou. The American team, plagued by its perennial relay woes, faltered in the heats, continuing a frustrating pattern of missed opportunities.
The drama reached a boiling point at the Paris 2024 Olympics. A positive COVID-19 test forced Lyles out of the men’s 4x100m relay, leaving a U.S. team led by Christian Coleman, Fred Kerley, Kenny Bednarek, and Kyree King to pick up the slack. But in a cruel twist of fate, a baton exchange error between Coleman and Bednarek outside the legal 30-meter zone saw the U.S. disqualified, yet another chapter in their two-decade-long relay curse.
Canada, meanwhile, seized the moment. Their quartet delivered a textbook performance, blazing to gold in 37.50 seconds. The victory was made even sweeter by the memory of an earlier video where Lyles, when asked if Canada posed a relay threat, dismissively laughed, replying, “Who? Who?” In Paris, Canada had the last laugh.
So while Noah Lyles continues to build a compelling case as the 100m king with his individual brilliance, the broader narrative of sprinting supremacy is increasingly influenced by relay performances, and right now, Canada owns that stage.
As the track world turns its eyes to Tokyo, one thing is clear: Noah Lyles can run fast enough to claim the throne, but unless the U.S. finds a way to solve its relay puzzle, Canada’s dominance will remain an asterisk on his reign.
