Noah Lyles has Covid-19 and wins bronze in the 200 meters at the Olympic Games in Paris

Before and during the men’s 200 meters at the Paris Olympics on Thursday, American sprinter Noah Lyles had to deal with an extra competitor with some spikes. Not spikes, but spike proteins on top of themselves – as in the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Lyles finished third in the race for the bronze medal behind gold medalist Letsile Tebogo of Botswana and silver medalist Kenny Bednarek of the US. And after the race, Lyles revealed he had tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday morning, just two days earlier.

It was clear that Covid-19 had affected Lyles’ performance in the race. His breathing seemed labored and he received medical attention shortly after crossing the finish line. This culminated in Lyles being taken off the track in a wheelchair. Yes, the SARS-CoV-2 can even catch the fastest person in the world, namely Lyles who had previously won gold in the 100 meters at the Olympics.

When Lyles later spoke to reporters, he wore a black face mask. “It definitely affected my performance,” he said. “I had to take a lot of breaks [to receive] liquid.”

It also affected his lead up to the 200 meters. Shortly after testing positive for Covid-19 early Tuesday morning, Lyles moved from the Olympic Village to a hotel where he could remain isolated. He was also reportedly given Paxlovid and other medications to treat his symptoms.

Lyles hid the positive test news from people outside his inner circle. Adam Kilgore writes for the Washingtonpost Lyles quoted as saying“We didn’t want everyone to panic. We wanted them to compete.” Lyles continued, “And second, we wanted to be able to make this as discreet as possible. You never want to tell your competitors that you are sick. Why would you give them an advantage over you?”

Not surprisingly, Lyles would do whatever he could to avoid putting himself at a competitive disadvantage. Athletes spend years training and competing to get to the Olympics for one chance at a medal in a given event. This is their livelihood. So you can expect them to do what they can, within the limits of the rules of the Paris Olympic Games and the International Olympic Committee.

And for the Paris Olympics, athletes are not required to report positive Covid-19 tests or withdraw from events if they test positive. When it comes to Covid-19, the Paris Olympics appear to be leaving it up to the various countries and national Olympic committees to decide how to go about testing, preventing and treating Covid-19. This has made it difficult to say how many athletes were infected during the Olympics and if and when a Covid-19 outbreak might occur.

It also means you may not be able to predict how Covid-19 will impact these Olympics. Those infected can range from having no symptoms to becoming seriously ill with many possibilities in between. There is also the risk of a long Covid-19 period after recovery from the initial infection. This can mean a wide variety of persistent symptoms, such as fatigue, brain fog, headache, tremors, increased heart rate, heart palpitations, stomach pain, diarrhea, constipation, coughing, chest pain, shortness of breath, hearing problems, sleep problems, fever, sweating, chills, problems urinating, vision problems, depression, anxiety and swelling of the legs. And you can imagine how each of these symptoms can affect athletic performance.

Once again it was clear to Lyles, who also has a history of childhood asthma, that Covid-19 was affecting his performance in the 200 metres. Would he have won the race if he had been fully healthy? Without the Quantum Realm or a DeLorean time machine, that would be impossible to say. What is also not yet clear is how Covid-19 will affect the rest of his Olympic Games and beyond. Lyles still has the men’s 4 x 100 meter relay running in Paris. And it’s hard to relay what will happen with Covid-19 and the possibility of a long Covid-19 period until after the infection has passed, which could be as long as 10 to 14 days.