Olympic 100m gold medal winner Noah Lyles shunned Usain Bolt when it came to selecting the 'most complete' sprinter of all time and ended up choosing the Jamaican's countryman instead.
Lyles, 27, claimed gold at Paris 2024 in the men's 100m and also won a bronze in the 200m event, having also claimed third in the 200m at Tokyo 2020.
Lyles will be seeking to defend his 100m title on home soil when the Olympics take place in Los Angeles in 2028.
With only one Olympic gold medal to his name, Lyles currently has seven fewer than Bolt, who is widely regarded by many as the greatest sprinter of all time.
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Bolt announced his arrival at the Olympics at Beijing 2008 by claiming gold in both the 100m and 200m events.
The Lightning Bolt then competed at London 2012 to win gold in both events once again, as well as being part of the victorious 4x100m Jamaican relay team to take his tally to five medals across only two Olympics.
And the now 38-year-old secured his legendary status by achieving yet another clean sweep in the same three events four years later at Rio 2016 to take his tally to an extraordinary eight Olympic golds, before retiring from sprinting the following year.
Despite being considered the sprinting GOAT, Lyles went in a different direction when it came to naming the most complete 100m runner in his opinion.
And he chose Bolt's compatriot Asafa Powell, who were both part of the Jamaican gold medal winning 4x100m relay team at Rio 2016.
Explaining his reasoning last year to The Final Leg via Pulse Sports, Lyles said: "Truthfully? It's crazy when I say this because he's known as a choker, but it's also powerful. The man puts together perfect races.
"His execution of the start, his reaction times, his acceleration, his transition - smooth. It's relaxed when he's not under pressure. And he finishes. It never fails.
"Everybody who watches his race is like, 'oh, his world record could have been so much greater.' And he’s like, 'yeah, it could have'."
Powell set the 100m world record twice between 2006 and 2007.
But Bolt did so too on three occasions in 2008 and 2009, the most recent being a 9.58 seconds set in Berlin in 2009 - a record which still stands to this day.
Topics: Usain Bolt, Noah Lyles, Athletics, Olympics
John McDougall