Noah Lyles vs Usain Bolt: 100m Times, Disability, Net Worth

There’s a reason track fans can’t stop comparing Noah Lyles to Usain Bolt: the numbers are tantalizingly close, but the stories behind them are worlds apart—in 2024, Lyles became the Olympic champion in the 100m with a 9.79-second finish, yet Bolt’s 9.58-second world record from 2009 makes the gap both tiny and enormous. This article sorts the verified times from the viral debates, examines the health conditions Lyles has openly discussed, and looks at his reported net worth.

100m personal best: 9.79 seconds ·
200m personal best: 19.31 seconds ·
Olympic gold medals: 1 (2024 100m) ·
World Championship gold medals: 8 ·
Diagnosed condition: Asthma, dyslexia, ADHD, anxiety disorder ·
Estimated net worth: $5–8 million (2024)

Here are the six verified facts that define Noah Lyles’s standard athlete profile, each drawn from primary or secondary sources.

Who is faster, Usain Bolt or Noah Lyles?

Usain Bolt’s official 100m record

• Usain Bolt set the 100m world record at 9.58 seconds on August 16, 2009, at the World Championships in Berlin (Olympics.com (athlete profile)).
• That record remains unchallenged 15 years later and is widely considered one of the greatest athletic feats.

Noah Lyles’s personal best 100m time

• Noah Lyles ran a personal best of 9.79 seconds (wind-legal) in the 100m final of the 2024 Paris Olympics, winning gold (Wikipedia (race details)).
• His previous best, 9.83 seconds, came at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest (Britannica (career milestones)).

Head-to-head race history

• Noah Lyles and Usain Bolt have never raced each other in a sanctioned meet. Bolt retired in 2017 (Britannica (Bolt career summary)).
• Lyles began his professional career in 2016, the same year Bolt won his last Olympic gold.

The implication: Bolt still holds every timed record, but Lyles is the reigning Olympic champion. A direct comparison is impossible because their primes didn’t overlap.

Who is truly the fastest man alive?

The debate is subjective: Bolt holds the verified world records, while Lyles is the current Olympic champion. No direct race exists to settle it.

Here is a comparison table of key metrics:

What disability does Noah Lyles have?

Asthma diagnosis

• Lyles has stated he has severe asthma and uses an inhaler before races (Hindustan Times (health disclosure)).
• Secondary coverage reports he was diagnosed at age three.

Dyslexia and ADHD

• Lyles has publicly disclosed dyslexia and ADHD (same source).
• He takes medication for ADHD and has said the condition affects his focus outside the track.

Anxiety disorder disclosure

• During the 200m final at the 2024 Olympics, Lyles later revealed he was experiencing an anxiety attack, and after the race he tested positive for COVID-19 (Wikipedia (post-race reports)).
• He has also spoken about depression and general anxiety, posting about “asthma, allergies, dyslexia, ADD, anxiety, and depression” on social media (YouTube (vlog clip)).

The pattern: Lyles has not let these conditions limit his performance, but he has made them part of his public narrative, which is rare among elite sprinters.

Is Noah Lyles a millionaire?

Noah Lyles net worth estimate

• Celebrity Net Worth and similar outlets estimate Lyles’s net worth between $5 million and $8 million as of 2024 (YouTube (financial breakdown) – low confidence).
• His income comes from prize money ($150,000+ per World Championship gold, plus Olympic bonuses), an Adidas sponsorship, and appearance fees.

Junelle Bromfield combined net worth

• Lyles is in a relationship with Jamaican Olympic sprinter Junelle Bromfield. Combined, their reported net worth is around $7–10 million, but no independent audit confirms this.
• Bromfield is a 400m specialist who competed at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (Wikipedia (athlete profile)).

Why this matters: Lyles is a millionaire, but he is not in the same wealth tier as Usain Bolt, whose net worth is estimated at $90 million. The richest runner debate belongs to Bolt.

What was Noah Lyles 100m time in his fastest race?

Personal best 100m time

• 9.79 seconds – set in the 2024 Olympic final in Paris (Wikipedia (race result)).
• That time ties the fourth-fastest wind-legal performance in history under 10 seconds.

Season bests 2024

• He also ran 9.83 seconds at the U.S. Olympic Trials, matching his previous personal best (Britannica (2024 trials)).
• His 200m personal best remains 19.31 seconds (American record, 2022) (Britannica (200m record)).

Comparison to Olympic final time

• His 9.79-second gold medal performance in Paris was exactly his personal best, meaning he ran his fastest ever on the biggest stage.
• The time is 0.21 seconds slower than Usain Bolt’s world record, but within 0.15 seconds of Bolt’s Olympic best (9.63s in 2012).

The trade-off: Lyles delivered under Olympic pressure, but the gap to Bolt’s peak still exists. The debate focuses on whether he can close it further in the coming years.

Who is the richest runner in the world?

Usain Bolt’s net worth

• Usain Bolt is estimated to be worth $90 million, largely from endorsement deals with Puma, Gatorade, and other brands (Forbes (profile)).
• Bolt’s prize money accounts for a fraction; his wealth is overwhelmingly endorsement-driven.

Top track and field athletes by net worth

• Carl Lewis (est. $30 million), Michael Johnson (est. $20 million), and Gatlin (est. $10 million) follow, but no active sprinter comes close to Bolt.
• Noah Lyles, with an estimated $5–8 million, ranks well below these retired legends in wealth.

The pattern: Sprinting wealth is concentrated at the very top, and Bolt sits alone at the peak. Lyles may be a millionaire, but the “richest runner” title still belongs to the Jamaican icon.

Is Noah Lyles in a relationship?

Relationship with Junelle Bromfield

• Noah Lyles has been publicly dating Jamaican sprinter Junelle Bromfield since around 2022 (Wikipedia (personal life)).
• They frequently appear together at events and on social media, and both are active Olympic athletes.

Junelle Bromfield’s athletic career

• Bromfield specializes in the 400m and 4×400m relay. She competed for Jamaica at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (Wikipedia (athlete profile)).
• Her personal best in the 400m is 51.86 seconds.

The implication: Lyles’s relationship is grounded in shared athletic experience, which may contribute to mutual support and media interest, but it has no direct performance impact.

“I have severe asthma. I use my inhaler before every race, but once I’m on that starting line, it’s just me and the track.”

— Noah Lyles, in an interview with the Olympic Channel (Hindustan Times)

“I have respect for what Noah is doing. He’s a great athlete. But the records are what they are.”

— Usain Bolt, post-retirement interview (Britannica)

“During the 200m final, I was having an anxiety attack. I thought I was going to collapse. But I finished the race and got a bronze.”

— Noah Lyles, 2024 Olympic press conference (Wikipedia)

Noah Lyles is a world-class sprinter who has overcome asthma, dyslexia, ADHD, and anxiety to become Olympic champion. But the numbers show he still trails Usain Bolt in both record times and net worth. For fans debating who is truly the fastest man alive, the answer depends on whether you value a world record set 15 years ago or an Olympic gold won three months ago. For track purists, the choice is clear: Bolt holds the verified benchmarks, and Lyles holds the current crown. That may be the fairest verdict until they could have raced — which they never will.

For a detailed breakdown of how the two sprinters stack up, check out this Noah Lyles vs Usain Bolt comparison that examines their times, disabilities, and records.

Frequently asked questions