Olympic champion Noah Lyles will race the 100m at the London Diamond League in July.

Lyles has not raced over that distance since the Olympic final last August, a title he won by one five-thousandths of a second from Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson.

It was the closest men’s 100m Olympic final ever and Lyles’ 9.78sec winning time was the fastest since Usain Bolt’s Olympic record (9.63) in London in 2012.

It made him the first US man to win 100m Olympic gold for 20 years, since Justin Gatlin in 2004.

“My road to defending my world titles in Tokyo in September goes through London,” Lyles said. “Ive had great experiences there the last two years, running some of my fastest times, and I look forward to another in July.”

Last summer he won the 100m in London in what was his only appearance at a Diamond League meeting all year — it is the biggest of the meets on the circuit — and final race before the Paris Olympics.

Lyles’ 9.81 was not only a PB but meant his winning margin was five-tenths of a second too, clear daylight by sprinting standards.

In 2023, he beat Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo in London to win the 200m in a then world-leading time of 19.47.

It extended his run of consecutive 200m wins to 17 (he jokingly calls this distance his “wife” and the 100m his “mistress”) and he won his third 200m world title that September (19.52) by over two-tenths from American youngster Erriyon Knighton.

In fact, Lyles’ 200m streak ended up lasting 26 races across three years between the delayed 2021 Tokyo Olympics and 2024 Paris Games — he took bronze in the final in both.

It has been a quiet start to the year for Lyles on the circuit, with him one of the big-hitters missing from Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track League.

He competed at only two indoor meets, both times only running the 60m.

The 27-year-old did not go to the US indoor Championships to defend his 60m title, nor the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, having won 60m silver in Glasgow the year prior.

Instead, Lyles opted to race longer, and in April ran his first 400m as a professional athlete.

A “tight ankle” forced him to withdraw from the Atlanta City Games last week, with Lyles content to “play it safe” because he has wildcards (automatic entries) into the 100m and 200m at the Tokyo World Championships in September after winning both titles in Budapest, Hungary, two summers ago.

He is trying to become the first man since Usain Bolt in 2013 and 2015 to win the 100/200 double at consecutive World Championships — Gatlin in 2005 and Tyson Gay in 2007 were the last Americans to manage that.

(Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Liam Tharme is one of The Athletic’s Football Tactics Writers, primarily covering Premier League and European football.

Prior to joining, he studied for degrees in Football Coaching & Management at UCFB Wembley (Undergraduate), and Sports Performance Analysis at the University of Chichester (Postgraduate).

Hailing from Cambridge, Liam spent last season as an academy Performance Analyst at a Premier League club, and will look to deliver detailed technical, tactical, and data-informed analysis. Follow Liam on Twitter @LiamTharmeCoach