Alexandria Grad Noah Lyles Sets American 200M Record

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Noah Lyles, an Alexandria high school graduate, set the American record in the 200m sprint at the 2022 World Athletics Championships Thursday.

The 25-year-old Lyles clocked in at 19.31 seconds, beating the previous American record of 19.32 seconds, set by Michael Johnson at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Lyles set the third-fastest time in the world for the 200m. The world record in the 200m is Usain Bolt's 19.19 seconds set at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin. The only other time faster than Lyles' was 19.26 seconds by Yohan Blake at the 2011 Brussels Diamond League meet.

"All I can say is 'I been patiently waiting for Track to explode on,'" Lyles wrote in a Facebook post after his win. "Thank you to my family thank you God for getting me through hard times thank you everybody who supported me and everybody who didn’t support me because you only make me hungrier and want to work harder!"

Americans swept the top three spots in Thursday's 200m event as Kenny Bednarek took second and Erriyon Knighton took third at 19.77 seconds and 19.80 seconds, respectively.

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Lyles was also the 200m winner at the 2019 world championships but took bronze in the 200m at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Lyles is a 2016 graduate of T.C. Williams High School, now renamed Alexandria City High School. Track and field runs in the family, as his parents Keisha Caine Bishop and Kevin Lyles were track and field competitors at Seton Hall University, and his brother Josephus Lyles is also a professional athlete.

See the video of Lyles breaking the American 200m record here.