In a touching conversation with André Chapman Jr., Josephus Lyles, the younger brother of Olympic champion Noah Lyles, put light on an often-overlooked aspect of mental health in track and field. The 26-year-old underlined the significance of addressing mental health in addition to physical preparation as athletes endure intense pressure to achieve.
Drawing on his personal experiences, he called for a more open discussion about these challenges to destigmatize the difficulties that many athletes face. Josephus, like other track athletes, has faced his fair share of obstacles. He has frequently talked about how he was unable to translate his practice time into significant performances in races due to psychological issues.
This prompted him to seek help from a mental coach and led to the discovery that the source of his problems was not his performance but the anxiety that he encountered before major events. Following the admission, Josephus explained that many athletes have similar mental challenges as a result of the amount of pressure placed on them.
Focusing more on his mental health assisted him improve his performance. He stated, “I feel like it allowed me to like run more free to not really be like caught up in these little things. Like things are going to be wrong, things are going to go right, that’s fine.”
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Josephus eventually learned to focus on the big picture rather than worrying about his performance. Since Noah has faced similar obstacles throughout his career, the track community sees the Lyles brothers as mental health advocates. In addition to spending time together during training, the brothers also enjoy video game sessions together from their home.
The Lyles brothers grind League of Legends together
Noah has a variety of hobbies that he pursues when he is off the track and one of them is gaming. He enjoys the activity and has his own favorite game, League of Legends. In addition to his solo grinding of ranked matches, he also gets on the game with Josephus.
An Instagram story showed them preparing for a competitive match as the athlete’s computer screen displayed the loadout selection. It also included numerous interesting details, such as Noah’s custom Exodia The Forbidden One keyboard, which was gifted to him by his favorite eSports team, 100 Thieves.
The full network of cables also revealed the 100-meter Olympic champion’s preference for wired gaming over wireless, something he previously admitted was due to latency issues.
