TOKYO (AP) — Noah Lyles was in tears shortly after taking the bronze medal in the 200 meters at the Tokyo Games.
It had little to do with the medal. It went much deeper than that.
The tears he shed were for his brother, Josephus, who had the original dream of being at the Olympics and didn’t make the team.
They were for a difficult year that saw the 24-year-old Lyles go on and off of antidepressants as he tried to find the right feel for his hectic race to Tokyo.
They were for mental health. Like Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka before him, Lyles broached the subject and the way it impacts athletes and the public in general.