A small tear that turned into something else
Noah Lyles will not race in Budapest. The Olympic 100m champion has pulled out of the first World Athletics Ultimate Championship after a hamstring problem spiraled into further complications.
He laid out the timeline himself on X. It began in the 200m final at the US championships in July, a twinge in the left hamstring.
“It was pretty complicated,” he said. “We thought it was very straightforward. Unfortunately, after racing at the national championships, I found out I had a small tear. Nothing too serious. And the rehab plan we put in place was going extremely well. But unfortunately, because of the tear, other issues came up, and that made it hard to keep training.”
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$10 million on the table, and he is not there for it
The meet he is skipping carries weight. The World Athletics Ultimate Championship runs Friday through Sunday in Budapest with a $10 million prize pool. World Athletics built it to be the sport’s marquee gathering between Olympic cycles.
The format breaks from the usual World Championships: 16 athletes per track event, eight in the field, eight relay teams. Every gold medalist collects $150,000.
Lyles, 29, had a shot at that money in both of his events. He holds the world-leading 100m time of the year, 9.79, run at the very US championships where the hamstring went. Fastest of the season, unluckiest of the season, same afternoon.
No return date
The résumé is untouched. Olympic 100m champion in Paris in 2024, still the most recognizable sprinter on the planet. Budapest loses its headline act for the inaugural edition.
Nobody knows how long this lasts. Lyles offered no timeline, and most of his message came back to one thing: he still cannot train properly.
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