noah lyles is in his "anti-hero era"

Welcome to mixed feelings’ Hyperspecific, a profile series of increasingly intimate questions in which we ask our favorite artists, scientists, musicians, and the like to unveil their innermost selves — their weird existential musings.

The “N” in Noah Lyles stands for “nerd”. I say this in solidarity, in a way that only someone who sang the theme song to Tokyo Ghoul alongside him can. I am not someone who pays attention to sports, but when Noah went viral a few months back for running the Olympic trial 100m dash with a Blue Eyes White Dragon Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card tucked into his Adidas tank top I seated (sat?) myself accordingly.

In the weeks since winning the Olympic gold medal for the 100m race in Paris, he’s been the subject of both adoration and vitriol thanks, in part, to a seemingly braggadocious press tour. “I’m definitely in my anti-hero era,” he said.

But this interview felt a little different. Maybe it’s because Noah, his girlfriend (and fellow Olympian) Junelle Bromfield, and I yapped casually for 45 minutes about anime and trading cards. “We both watch anime, but she won’t watch anything that doesn’t have action in it,” he ribbed. The over-confident version of Noah I’d seen in clips on TikTok felt far from the version I was getting in the studio. I mean...his low-key hell is losing the last piece of his Lego Star Destroyer set!

I am here for this era of sports: where jocks can be just as astute on the field as they are at the board game table. They can be funny, freaky little nerds who might just need a little extra media training. Read Noah’s Hyperspecific interview, below. — Mi-Anne

LEVEL I

1. Something you’re always hoping people bring up in conversation when you first meet.

   If anybody talks about anime in the first conversation, we're going to have a long [one]. Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood [is my favorite]. It is a great anime. It dives deep into fighting, into government, into social standings, and into human concepts. I love that stuff. My sister just told me the reason why she wants to be a biochemist is because Full Metal Alchemist is her favorite anime, as well.

2. A positive trait people always tell you you have.
   People usually say that I have a very strong smile or that my eyes are very happy. Or they'll tell me when they leave: “Yo, I was extremely inspired.”

3. One destructive trait you know you possess and wish you didn’t.
   I can be extremely petty. My mom calls it being ornery. When I get stressed, I get very ornery…I'm very quick to [make a] judgment. I'm very quick to jump to passive aggressiveness and pettiness. I'm not the biggest fan of having that trait because I know what it feels like to be on the other end.

4. If a bodega were to name a dish after you, what would it be? (Be specific.)
   We’ll call it the “Iconic Lyles.” It would be a French toast breakfast sandwich. It would definitely have sausage in there. It'd have a fried egg, too. You might even throw in some bacon, mayo, and then a bunch of cheese.

5. One song that makes you feel understood.
   ”Lucky Me” by Big Sean…Another song that I feel like I connect to a lot is “October Sky” by Yebba. I feel like every time she sings it, I can imagine everything so clearly, and I know what it's like to have a very strong connection to your mom. I can only imagine what it'd be like losing mine. And then finally it would probably be “Jesus Walks” by Kanye. I connect to that very much because I've definitely been guided by God, but I feel like mainstream media doesn't want to hear that. Anytime you talk about it, everybody gets turned off and it’s very hard to figure out how you handle that.

6. Something you think is wildly underrated.
   The Speed Racer movie. It's one of my favorites. I have it downloaded on my phone so I can watch at any time, any place. I actually watched it before the 100m finals at the Olympics. I usually watch it before all my big races. I'm a huge Speed Racer fan. I feel the movie does the show so much justice and nobody's seen it.

   LEVEL II

1. A movie you watch when you want to self-soothe.
   The Lego Movie is definitely one of 'em. And Ready Player One. I might just crank out VeggieTales, too. I grew up on VeggieTales. It's the funniest, cutest fever dream you will ever see in your life.

2. What’s the first fandom you lost yourself in.
   I watched Dragon Ball Z for the first time when I was 10 or 12. Ever since then, I've been drawing it, I've been watching it, [and] reading the manga. I'm part of that fandom…I got picked on because I liked the anime.

3. Your problematic fave artist/actor/musician (dead or alive). And why?

   It is…Kanye West. I'm sorry!…I feel like I relate to a lot of Kanye's life. Going through struggle, trying to make it to the top, trying to do it your own way. Not saying that he shouldn’t be reprimanded — he needs to be, he definitely needs some help. But I definitely relate to Kanye and I'm still a very big fan of his old work.

4. Dream game night rotation.

   I'm definitely going to have to have my original crew. So my girlfriend, my brother, his girlfriend, my two friends. We play a lot of Catan, survival board games, Magic The Gathering…If I was to add somebody else…maybe the actor who played in Man of Steel? Henry Cavill. I heard he is a super big Warhammer fan and I feel like he would be able to easily jump into the games that we play. I like people who are passionate about the game. I don't want you to get bored halfway through.

5. Something you bought recently after LOTS of research.

   I bought a Shark vacuum cleaner. I was on TikTok watching all of these moms say that this is the best vacuum cleaner out there. And I'm like, well, mine's broken, so I'm going to take their advice. They were right. This is the best vacuum cleaner I've ever had.

6. Who do you main in your favorite video game. 
   So I play a lot of League of Legends. I play a lot of characters, but I'd say some of my favorites to play are Seraphine, Senna, and then Taliya in the midline for sure. Oh, and I like Neeko! Neeko is the best decision.

LEVEL III

1. What’s an anecdote you usually tell to describe how you were as a kid?
   So it goes: A teacher asked her class to do an assignment. She said, write what you want to be when you get older. She goes up to one of the students and the student writes “happy”. The teacher says, “I don't think you understood the assignment.” And the kid says, “I don't think you understand life.” [Growing up] all I cared about was being happy. All I cared about was having fun. That’s all. It’s still one of my motivations.

2. What is your low-key hell and actual heaven?
   My low-key hell is probably when I am trying to work out and someone tries to take a picture with me when I'm in the middle of a lift. And then my actual heaven heaven is anytime I get a new Lego set. I build a lot of Legos. I'm actually in the middle of building the Star Destroyer Lego set. I hate, hate, hate, hate, when I'm looking at all the pieces and I can't find this one little piece, and I'm panicking because I don't know if I kicked it off the couch or the table and I can't find it. But at the same time, I love it because it slows down the process of building it.

3. One time you laughed so hard you cried. 
   There’s this one time my friend was looking at one of my tweets and he said, “you know, you used the wrong ‘there’.” And I'm like, “Buddy, let me tell you something. I got dyslexia. Lemme tell you how dyslexia works. I can look and spell a word correctly, only to find out two minutes later that I put an extra ‘e’ in there knowing good and well, my brain said, nah, you good fam.” We just started laughing.

4. Random thing you hate so much for no apparent reason.
   Filler episodes. They’re so freaking annoying. I mean, the beach episode. The hot springs episode…But the anime trope that bugs me the most is the “Oh, I slipped and fell onto this girl and she slaps me.” I hate that trope. Come on. We could just move along to the next scene. Those don’t even need to be a thing.

5. How you exit a party.
   I'll pay the bill and then dance out because usually it's my party.

6. How you wanna go (either un-seriously or seriously).
   Let's choose serious because I don't want to make up a joke right now. My mom's side of the family lives pretty long and I take pretty good care of my body. So I think that if everything goes great, then hopefully I get to make it to at least my late eighties or nineties…I'm with my wife, we're having a cookout, and I'm just looking at the family and what they've achieved off of what I've been able to set the groundwork for. I don't think my favorite accomplishment is going to be what I do on the track. It's going to be what I've set up for my family because I've known what's happened in the past with my family, and I want to be able to say to each one of my kids and each one of my grandkids, “Whatever you want to do, whatever you want to be, we can provide you the outreach and the path for you to be able to find that.”…And once I've seen all my kids be able to do that…then I'll die, and then they'll see the tattoo marked on my torso that says “icon.” And they'll be like, “Yeah, Granddaddy was an icon.”