Moments after his hopes of a 200m gold medal and a famous sprint double were ended by Botswana's Letsile Tebogo, Noah Lyles was receiving medical attention from medics who then took him from the track in a wheelchair.
Soon afterwards, wearing a mask as he spoke with reporters, Lyles said he had COVID.
After crossing the line third for the second straight Olympics, Lyles fell to his back and writhed in pain, staying down for nearly 30 seconds before getting up, asking for water and getting to the wheelchair.
“It definitely affected my performance,” the American said.
It is the second successive Olympics that the virus has played a major role in Lyles' story.
He also won the bronze in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and he has said the empty stands and the year-long delay before the Games led to a depression that hampered his performance.
Lyles said he tested positive on Tuesday and quickly got into quarantine. “I still wanted to run,” he said. “They said it was possible.”
The US track federation released a statement saying they and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee had adhered to all Olympic and Centres for Disease Control guidelines.
The men's 4x100m relay is set for Friday, and Lyles had been expected to run the anchor leg in what many thought would be a quest for a third gold medal in Paris. He said that decision had not been made as of late Thursday.
Tebogo led all the way to win in 19.46 seconds with Kenny Bednarek second in 19.62. Lyles,four nights after winning the 100m, ran the curve in 19.70
