Why Noah Lyles was allowed to run the 200 meters at the Paris Olympics with COVID

Noah Lyles didn’t look like himself on the track Thursday at the finals of the men’s 200 meter race at the 2024 Paris Olympics. He finished in third place in his signature event, then needed a wheelchair to help him leave the track.

Moments after the race had ended, we learned why. Lyles had tested positive for COVID-19, the illness that had spurred a global pandemic four years earlier. It was an announcement that created mixed responses.

Some marveled at the American’s ability to find a place on the podium while fighting a respiratory virus. Others wondered why he’d been unable to compete after participants in the last Games, just three years earlier, had their Olympic hopes dashed after contracting COVID.

Noah Lyles confirmed he tested positive for COVID at 5am Tuesday morning Paris time. He “kept this close to the vest.” Didn’t want competitors to know he was sick. His mom, medical staff knew he had it. He quarantined at a hotel the last few nights. He was going to run regardless pic.twitter.com/ekIGhxmPvp

— Coley Harvey (@ColeyHarvey) August 8, 2024

It turns out, the 2024 Olympics doesn’t have a protocol for COVID-19.

Lyles wasn’t the first athlete to compete with COVID

The first cases of COVID at the 2024 Paris Olympics, per USA Today’s Carrie McDonald, were members of Australia’s women’s water polo team. But since the Games no longer have specific rules and regulations related to the virus, their illness was treated like any other respiratory affliction.

“I need to emphasize that we are treating COVID no differently to other bugs like the flu,” said Australian Olympic team chief Anna Mears. “This is not Tokyo. The athlete is not particularly unwell and they are still training but sleeping in a single room.”

“We have our respiratory illnesses protocol in place and we have reinforced with all of the teams as they arrive into our village. Two basic rules around that really simple hygiene practices are effective. And if you are feeling unwell or have any symptoms, get tested.”

As such, the onus was shifted onto the athletes themselves to determine if they were well enough to compete. There are no temperature checks, mask mandates or mandatory testing. Competitors who feel ill are encouraged to self test, but the decision is theirs. The official Olympics literature for athletes at this year’s Games is scant and offers little in the way of official guidelines.

That makes a place like the Olympic village, where athletes are in close quarters with one another, an easy place for infection to spread. That applied to Lyles, who made the call to run the 200m despite his positive test and an illness that, by the time he’d finished the final, had forced him to be wheeled off the track.