Running News Daily

World champion Noah Lyles wins award for best U.S. track and field athlete for third time

The world 100m and 200m champion is only the second U.S. athlete to win the Jesse Owens Award three times.

The 2023 season has been one to remember for double sprint world champion, Noah Lyles, who became the first sprinter since the renowned Usain Bolt in 2015 to win both the 100m and 200m events at a World Athletics Championships. On Wednesday, he added one more award to his impressive list of accolades, winning the 2023 Jesse Owens Award for the best U.S. male track and field athlete.

This is Lyles’s third time winning the prestigious award given annually by the U.S.A. Track and Field (USATF), putting him in elite company with only Michael Johnson as the only other athlete to win the award three times.

Lyles was the most dominant sprinter in the world this year, winning gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay this past summer at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest. The three world titles were added to the previous three he won at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in the 200m and in 2019 in the 200m and 4x100m relay.

“It’s an honor to receive my third Jesse Owens Award and to be associated with such a legendary athlete,” said Lyles in his acceptance speech. “I want to thank USATF for this award, as well as my coach, Lance Brauman, my family and everyone who supported me on this historic season. I couldn’t have done this alone and I can’t wait to pick up right where we left off for 2024.”

The Jackie Joyner-Kersee Award was also awarded by the USATF to the top female athlete of the year, which went to newly-crowned world 100m champion Sha’Carri Richardson. Richardson is the first female 100m sprinter to win the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Award since Carmelita Jeter in 2011.

Richardson and Lyles were both nominees for World Athletics’ Athlete of the Year. Lyles was announced as one of the five finalists for the award earlier this week.