Noah Lyles signs record-setting contract with Adidas

The world 100m and 200m champion, Noah Lyles, has signed a record-setting deal with Adidas that will run through the L.A. 2028 Olympics. The exact dollar figures have not been disclosed, but it has been dubbed the richest contract in track and field since the retirement of Usain Bolt.

Bolt’s contract with Puma in 2013 was estimated at around $10 million a year, and the deal took him to the end of his career, in 2017. Lyles’s new contract is likely in the ballpark.

Adidas has been Lyles’s sponsor since the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials, when he finished fourth in the men’s 200m as a high school senior. Lyles has since become the world’s most dominant sprinter, winning three consecutive World Championships titles over 200m, breaking the 26-year-old American record in 2022 (19.31 seconds) and winning all three sprint gold medals in the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest. He is only the fifth man to accomplish that feat, and the first since Bolt at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing.

“When I first signed with Adidas in 2016 along with my brother, Josephus, it was like a dream come true for us,” Lyles said in a press release. “Today is just a continuation of that childhood dream.” Lyles shared his vision of achieving all he can on and off the track, and his goal to make a change for future generations. “This is what drives me,” he said.

Lyles has had a fast start to the 2024 season, clocking a new personal best of 6.45 at the New Balance Grand Prix earlier this month, then following up his performance with a 60m win at the U.S. Indoor Track and Field Championships in a world-leading 6.43 seconds, beating his compatriot and former 100m world champion Christian Coleman.

The 26-year-old is the favourite to win gold in the 100m and 200m at this summer’s Paris Olympics. (He has yet to win an Olympic gold medal.) He won bronze in the men’s 200m in Tokyo, losing to Canada’s Andre De Grasse and American Kenny Bednarek.

Along with Adidas, Lyles also has partnerships with Omega Watches, Celsius Fitness Drinks, Comcast and Visa.

posted Tuesday February 27th
by Marley Dickinson