Noah Lyles calls World Athletics Awards “kind of a joke”

Reigning Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles was in India on Sunday as a guest of the Bajaj Pune Marathon, where he met with media before serving as the race’s celebrity starter. During those interviews, Lyles was asked about being a finalist for the 2025 World Athletics Male Athlete of the Year award, an honour given to Swedish pole vault world-record holder Mondo Duplantis. His response raised some eyebrows.

The 28-year-old said he didn’t expect to be nominated in the first place, after spending part of the season sidelined by injury. What he did expect, however, was not to win.

“There’s a lot more politics to these awards than you think,” Lyles told India’s The Hindu Sports. “It’s not that I don’t think Mondo deserves Athlete of the Year—I mean, he breaks the world record every year.”

Lyles called the award “redundant” and questioned the nomination process after American sprint star Melissa Jefferson-Wooden was not one of the finalists. “At this point, this award is kind of a joke,” Lyles said.

Duplantis and American hurdles (now sprint) phenom Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone were named the 2025 male and female winners.

Lyles pointed to Jefferson-Wooden’s snub as an example of what he sees as a flawed system. Jefferson-Wooden had a breakout season, winning world championship gold in the 100m and 200m and helping Team USA also win the women’s 4x100m relay title. She also ran world-leading times in both disciplines and became the fourth-fastest woman in history with her 10.61 performance in the Tokyo 100m final.

Though Lyles’s words may sound like sour grapes, he wasn’t alone in holding that view. Former Canadian Olympic sprinter and current track and field commentator Anson Henry agreed, posting on Instagram that it was “a joke” for her not to be nominated.

This isn’t the first time Lyles has publicly criticized the World Athletics Awards. In 2023, he won the honour but was forced to share it with Duplantis and the late Kenyan marathoner Kelvin Kiptum (the first and only time the award has been split).

I’m guessing that was not WA’s goal but that is how it made me feel. I do believe that there should be more awards included in the event but not with exclusion of the AOY award.

— Noah Lyles, OLY (@LylesNoah) December 14, 2023

That year, Lyles became the first sprinter since Usain Bolt to sweep gold in both the 100m and 200m at a World Athletics Championships. Following the awards ceremony, he expressed his thoughts on X, saying the decision to divide the award without informing the athletes left him feeling as though his achievements had not been valued.