On Monday night, Noah Lyles was the The Tonight Show’s opening guest, sitting down for an interview with host Jimmy Fallon.
During the six and a half minute set, Lyles discussed his introduction and upbringing in the sport, his goals for the upcoming Paris Olympics, and shared a sneak peak of the Sprint documentary coming to Netflix.
In a key moment during the interview, Noah shared his aspirations of coming home from Paris with four Olympic gold medals: 100 meters, 200 meters, 4x100m relay, and 4x400m relay – a feat not yet accomplished. On the addition of the 4×4 to his competition schedule, Kimmel asked, “What makes you go, ‘I want to add this extra pressure to my life’?” Lyles replied, “Everybody knows Bolt. Great guy, fastest. I want to be faster than him. It’s not just good enough to be faster than that, you also have the medals to go with it. He has won three already and he has the world records when he did it. What do you got to do to be better than that? You have to get four. Nobody’s done four. Now you’re going on the Mount Rushmore. Now you’re greatest of the great.”
To kick off the interview, Kimmel said that Noah had earned the title of Fastest Man in the World at the 2023 World Championships, and when asked about his speed, Noah shared, “I’d say [when running my fastest], 26 miles per hour. So if I was running in a school zone, I would get a ticket.”
ATHLETES WHO HAVE BEEN ON LATE NIGHT SHOWS
- Allyson Felix on Jimmy Kimmel Live (hosted by Stephen A Smith)
- Alan Webb on David Letterman
- Meb Keflezighi doing Letterman’s Top 10
- Usain Bolt on The Late Late Show with James Corden
WATCH: Noah Lyles Is Gunning to Make Olympics History, Wants to Surpass Usain Bolt
