‘It was everything I could have ever imagined, the culmination of everything I had worked for up to that point,’ says Lyles, cheerfully speaking from Virginia, where he moved from his hometown of Gainesville, Florida. The fastest man on planet Earth greets me with a warm ‘Blessed and extremely privileged’ when asked how he is, despite the influence of his devout Christian upbringing and the benefit of three months of hindsight, of those momentous events, the evening is still vivid. ‘Honestly, this is the toughest battle you’ve ever had to face and then you prove that you can prevail no matter the circumstances.’

It helps that Lyles has a special stylistic armor to prepare himself for combat; because he is – perhaps more than any other athlete today – a fashionista. ‘My style is rock star track star,’ he says proudly. ‘I like to be different, I like to be popular, I like aspects of the outfit to be like, ‘Wow, okay, this guy is blinding me a little bit.’ “I want the rock star effect.” He achieves this and then some; Lyles’ aesthetic choices have made her one of the most distinctive athletes of recent years, thanks to the pearls she weaves into her hair and the bold nail polish that features a white background with the blue letters I, C, O and N on her four fingers. , For example.