“Dealing with serious gold medal depression”- Noah Lyles reveals mental health struggle behind break from track

American track and field athlete Noah Lyles recently opened up about mental health struggles that led him to take a break from track. The athlete also shared his thoughts on how preparations for the 2025 season have been going so far.

Lyles kicked off his 2025 season at an invitational event in Florida. Later, he competed in the 400m at the Tom Jones Memorial meet in April, but subsequently pulled out from the next Atlanta City Games scheduled in May due to a 'tight ankle'.

Nearly a month and a half later, Lyles returned to the track and made his 100m season debut at the London Diamond League on Saturday, July 19. The reigning 100m Olympic champion finished second behind the Jamaican sprinter Oblique Seville, clocking 10.00s.

In a post-race interview, Noah Lyles reflected on the kind of preparation that has gone this season, after an impressive 2023 season where he won triple gold in the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay at the World Championships, followed by a strong showing at the Paris Olympics.

“Yeah, indoor we kind of was just building up, you know, New Balance Grand Prix, ran well there. I said, ‘All right, we’re just going to get back into training.’ And it was kind of rough ‘cause I was dealing with some serious gold medal depression and just not getting a mental break from everything I was doing," Lyles said (via Citius Mag, 0:39 onwards). “And I had to force a reset in the middle of the season. And then on top of that, I got injured a few weeks later and it was like, ‘Okay, wow, I’m really getting a break here," he added.

The injury forced him to slow down both physically and mentally. He noted that he’s now taking things slowly and being patient with his progress.

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All about Noah Lyles’ 100m and 200m season openers

2025 Novuna London Athletics Meet Previews - Source: Getty

Noah Lyles ran his 200m season opener at the Monaco Diamond League on Friday, July 11. The American sprinter clocked 19.88s to win the race, beating reigning Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo.

Just a few days later, Lyles made his 100m season debut at the 11th stop of the Wanda Diamond League circuit in London, where he couldn't challenge Oblique Seville enough and finished second.

Up next, Noah Lyles will be looking to defend his double sprint title at the 2025 World Championships. As the reigning world champion in both 100m and 200m, he has an automatic berth and doesn’t need to compete at the U.S. National Championships to qualify.

Edited by Rupesh