For someone as outspoken as Noah Lyles, the reigning Olympic 100m champion, the past three months have been unusually quiet. But that’s about to change.
On Friday, Lyles will kick off his 2025 outdoor season in the men’s 200m at the Monaco Diamond League. The American sprint star announced the news on Instagram, writing: “Meeting Herculis. Diamond League Monaco. 200m 2025 Debut. Friday, July 11.”
This will mark Lyles’s first 200m race since finishing third in the Olympic final at Paris 2024, where Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo stormed to victory in an African record time of 19.46 seconds. Kenny Bednarek took silver, while Lyles (who later revealed he had contracted COVID-19 in the days leading up to the final) had to settle for bronze, claiming he wasn’t at 100 per cent.
Now, Monaco sets the stage for a highly anticipated rematch between two of the sport’s biggest sprinting stars. Tebogo has been undefeated in his three 200m races this season, while Lyles is looking to send a message ahead of the U.S. Track and Field Championships at the end of July.
So far this season, Lyles has only raced once outdoors—a 400m rust-buster at the Tom Jones Invitational in Gainesville, Fla., where he clocked 45.87 seconds. He was also briefly linked to a rumoured showdown against NFL wide receiver Tyreek Hill over 60 metres in Times Square, but the plan fell through for personal reasons. Instead, Hill raced (and won) against Lyles’s younger brother, Josephus.
Could we see a world record?
The men’s 200m won’t be the only marquee matchup in Monaco. The men’s 800m field will feature seven of the eight Olympic finalists from Paris, including all three medallists—Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Canada’s Marco Arop and Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati. These three are among the five fastest men in history over 800m and will no doubt have their sights set on David Rudisha’s world record of 1:40.91, set at the London 2012 Olympics.
The Monaco Diamond League begins Friday at 2 p.m. ET and can be streamed in Canada via CBC Sports, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.
