CW: Bullying
Noah Lyles, a 27-year-old from Gainesville, Florida is one of multiple athletes who had COVID-19 during the Olympics. On August 4, he won the gold medal in the 100-meter dash. He went on to win a bronze medal in the 200-meter dash four days later. Sadly, he collapsed and required a wheelchair to leave the track.
Lyles ran the 200-meter dash while he was testing positive for COVID-19. Lyles tested himself for COVID-19 around 5 a.m. on Tuesday, August 6, after waking up with a sore throat, body aches , and chills. When the test results came back positive, Lyles chose to isolate in a hotel near the Olympic Village, take Paxlovid, and get rest and drink fluids.
However, knowing he had tested positive for Covid-19 and had asthma put him at risk of developing potentially fatal symptoms from the virus. A 2022 study published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found that children with asthma who tested positive for COVID were more likely to need care from an emergency department than those who didn’t have asthma.
Lyles was determined to win another gold medal, and nothing, not even the risk to his own health or the potential harm to others, could deter him. Lyles is used to receiving criticism. He has dealt with dyslexia, anxiety, depression, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
“Those are all prime bullying targets right there,” he told The Associated Press. “I was getting bullied in school. It was very hard, and I was already not doing well because I’m not a traditional learner. It was very hard going through that. Going through the school system, it made me feel like I was stupid. I felt like none of my gifts I have now were worth anything.”
Being bullied takes a toll on your self- esteem. I relate to Lyles’s struggles with a learning disability. Due to my cerebral palsy, I have visual perception difficulties.
In school, geometry was very difficult. I have trouble viewing flat shapes and plotting points on a graph. Labeling diagrams is nearly impossible for me.
In open spaces, I tend to get lost easily. This makes shopping a challenge. I focus on a specific aisle each time rather than thinking ahead. I have trouble staying on one side of the aisle. I worry that people will think I am trying to get in their way on purpose.
Like Lyles, I often felt like I had to prove myself in school. There were times where I felt like I didn’t belong with my peers. During my senior year, my paraprofessional told me “You should know the answer to this, you’re in the easy math class” when I was struggling with a math test.
Noah Lyles is an Olympic champion. He worked hard for years to make it to the Olympics. However, sacrificing his health was not necessary. Olympic medals do not make him worthy.
Sources:
Buckner, Candace. “Noah Lyles’s Decision to Run with Covid Was Pretty Selfish. and Relatable. .” The Washington Post, WP Company, 9 Aug. 2024, http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2024/08/09/noah-lyles-covid-decision-competitors-exposure/.
Chou, Christine C., et al. ‘COVID-19 Infection May Trigger Poor Asthma Control in Children’. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice, vol. 10, no. 7, Elsevier, July 2022, pp. 1913–1915, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaip.2022.04.012.
Caplan, Arthur L. “Noah Lyles’ Collapse with Covid: How Not to Manage Health at the Olympics.” STAT News, Boston Globe Media, 9 Aug. 2024, http://www.statnews.com/2024/08/09/noah-lyles-covid-error-managing-health-olympics/.
Landrum, Johnathan. “Noah Lyles Feared Bronchitis after Positive Covid Test, but Now Pushes through with New Career Goals.” AP News, AP News, 12 Aug. 2024, apnews.com/article/noah-lyles-2024-olympics-3019804669a28dbd1ec0e373bd0458e7.