Noah Lyles Upset With Track & Field as He Vents Out Sad Reality Involving DK Metcalf

“World champion of what? The United States? Don’t get me wrong. I love the U.S. at times, but that ain’t the world.” Remember this statement that unleashed a fury of controversy on Noah Lyles in 2023, right? Well, you can always expect brutal honesty from him. He never shies away from calling a spade a spade. And when it comes to his own sport, he hasn’t sugarcoated things. No wonder, he had straight up labeled track and field a “dying sport.” Even beyond that, be it IOC’s 40-day rule, the sport’s visibility, lack of pay, or anything, Lyles always speaks! And here comes another hot take from the man on what’s going wrong in the sport.

Noah Lyles, the 100m Paris Olympics champion, is back to pinpointing what needs attention. No, he doesn’t seem to be nitpicking. He’s just point-blank honest about the track and field problems and the need for their solutions. Remember when he talked about the sport’s low visibility in non-Olympic years, and how the current structure of competitions does not keep track stars in headlines all year long? That’s when he’d proposed something like pre-race walk-ins like the NBA to boost the marketability of our athletes. “We got to do a better job at showing that this important…” And now, he’s back to pointing out a few more shortcomings in the sport.

June 3, 2025, Noah Lyles sat down for a chat with Cam Newton, where he pulled back the curtain on the chaos behind professional track and field. There’s no league, no players’ union, no pension, and people can literally just show up to races. Yes, Noah Lyles said, “Track and field as a sport is amateur. I’m a contractor. I’m contracted by Adidas to sell product How I do that is by running and being seen on TV. But when I go to a track meet. Anybody can go to these track meets you can go to this track meet if you run fast enough. Or maybe not even run fast enough. Maybe you just know the right person.”

Noah Lyles then cited an example. DK Metcalf, an NFL athlete, running a professional meet with no qualifications in track and field, left him surprised, “Like what did DK Metcalf do to prove that he was fast enough to be in this?” But that’s not all. The fastest man in the world cited more problems. He said, if one has to go and play in the NBA, the process would be to be picked by a team, get added to the roster, and then there’s pro day when you prove you are good enough to be on the team. But in track and field? There’s no such league.

You think he was done? No. Noah Lyles then continued to say, How there’s no league in track and field but a ‘governing body’ in the U.S., and what’s the job they do? Lyles says, they just govern what happens and check if athletes aren’t doing dr–gs. And when athletes go to the World Champs, the body represents them, because they now run for the U.S. and not for whoever’s paying them. “So when I go and I’m winning all these titles, I’m wearing Nike uniforms with USA on it. But I’m sponsored by Adidas. So my spikes are Adidas because that’s who my contractor is, because I’m not even an employee, you getting how confusing it is, right?”

Well, an athlete’s future in the sport is dependent Poson all these factors. Thus, shortly after publicizing his perspective, Noah Lyles voiced another unexpected update. He talked about his future moves in the sport and how he’s planning to prepare for it. Well, he is now in his prime, but he has to have a retirement plan, right? Thus, on the same chat show, when Noah Lyles got asked, “How long do you plan on running?” here’s what he replied.

Noah Lyles talks about retirement

Noah Lyles is the reigning 100m Olympic champion and the World Champion. But he’s yet to prove his might in the 200. And sure, he’ll have enough chances to do that. But will he really? Noah Lyles clarified his stance about wanting to hang up his spikes. He said, “I’ll definitely make it to LA. I’ll definitely make, so 2028 and then I’ll take it year by year after that. I’ll be 31 in LA and if I make it to Brisbane, I’ll be 35!” Well, the math is simple, he isn’t leaving soon.

But what happens when he finally leaves the sport? The host asked Noah Lyles is plans post 40. And that’s when the Florida-native answered, “I’ll move on to the next stage of my life.” And that’s how the entire conversation of track and field having no pension came up. When the host asked, “Do y’all have like a union?” Noah Lyles laughed out loud and said, “Union? We’re contractors. We can’t unionize.” He even confirmed that there’s no pension in the sport and it’s “very amateur.” 

But its also true that things are slowly but steadily changing. The pay aspects seem to have gotten better with the advent of Grand Slam Track and Athlos NYC. Also, the visibility appears to be getting better thanks to the stacked lineups at these events. But what Lyles now said is a whole other range of problems. Do they seem to be resolvable issues? Let us know what you think.