Breaking news – American track and field star Noah lyles has be banned from US today due to…

In the summer of 2023, while dancing at a party in Budapest, American sprinter Noah Lyles began to get texts from friends telling him to check his social media accounts. That evening, the Florida-native Olympian—the leading light in the track and field world—had much to rejoice over as she became the first competitor since Usain Bolt to win gold in the 100-, 200-, and 4×100-meter events at the World Championships. But there weren’t a ton of sincere congrats ringing his phone. NBA basketball players such as Kevin Durant and the league’s tough defenders, Drake, were showering Lyles with dirty jokes.

“I thought it was funny!” says Lyles, when I ask what it felt like to experience an unexpected wave of wrath on a fun night out. The stir was caused by a comment he made in a press conference following his wins, about how ridiculous it is that North America’s National Basketball Association names its seasonal winners ‘world champions’. “It was just a bunch of whiny babies getting mad because I said they don’t compete on a world level. Everyone was in such a tizzy!” A snippet of Lyles discussing the subject went viral, spawning global headlines and inciting conversations on mainstream news and sports networks.

“World champions of what? The United States?” he asked incredulously at the conference, in a tone and manner that made the moment feel predestined to become a meme. While the average person would likely be traumatised if they were roasted on Instagram by @champagnepapi (who joked that Lyles “thought this speech was gonna be so hard in the mirror the night before… now the whole league doesn’t rate u”), Lyles, fortunately, is about the furthest thing from average imaginable. As of 2023, he holds the official title of the world’s fastest man.

What meaning could a single negative comment hold for someone whose life and legacy hinges on a fraction of a second – and whose decades of training and inclusion in history books boil down to the microscopic difference between 0.32 and 0.31? One of the most decisive moments of Lyles’ career to date was born from this numerical breach. At a match in Eugene, Oregon in the summer of 2022, Lyles watched his time on the counter for the 200m dash change from its original reading of 19.32 down to 19.31 seconds after a playback. In a hair-raising, cinematic scene, Lyles ripped his jersey open and off his chest, after realising he had just set a new American record – a feat that hadn’t been accomplished in the event for 26 years.