By Elias Makori in Budapest, Hungary
Despite having to cut short his 2026 season, withdrawing from both the Diamond League’s tail-end and World Athletics’ inaugural Ultimate Championship with injury, the climax of the 2026 track and field calendar will nonetheless offer a silver lining for multiple World and Olympic champion Noah Lyles with fans gleefully waiting to see the sprints superstar’s creative side.
The flamboyant, 29-year-old American, who describes himself as “creative at heart,” has been roped in by World Athletics to serve some style and creativity onto the Ultimate Championship’s entertainment menu here in Budapest as the global track and field governing body moves to inject innovation into the sport.
“His objective is to make this event the best it could possibly be,” Laura Arcoleo of World Athletics’ communications department briefly told global athletics journalists on a conference call with the decorated, Gainesville Florida-born sprinter on Tuesday evening.
Lyles – 2024 Olympic 100m gold medalist and four-time 200m World Champion - is already in Budapest, going about production details and recce of what promises to be a spectacular weekend of sport, music and the lights in the Hungarian capital, revealing that he has flown in his personal DJ who is cooking some rich Caribbean flavours for the athlete-only after-party on Sunday night.
“My schedule here changes because daily, because we find more and more things that I can be involved in now that I’m not competing,” Lyles offered.
Noah Lyles won the 200 metres gold and anchored Team USA to gold in the 4x100m relay at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo (Photo / Mattia Ozbot for World Athletics)
“Today (Tuesday), we have another meeting for the venue and we will be going through the production side, lights and we’ll be talking about where the athletes will be entering, how they will be picking their songs, and the mini playlist that will be on the screen throughout the night.
Noah Lyles the Entertainer
"Then we will be going to the track later on to have the production meeting, discussing intros, celebrations and how the athletes will interact with different parts… making sure it’s seamless and easy so no athlete has to worry about ‘where I need to be’ but more about ‘how do I enjoy.’” This is the other side of Noah Lyles. The entertainer.
World Athletics are using the inaugural Ultimate Championship to appeal to a younger demographic, with innovation including a mini documentary series “Iron Sharpens Iron” that focuses on the regime of three training groups in the build-up to Budapest; infusing sprints legend Usain Bolt in the popular Roblox game and involving pole vault champion Mondo Duplantis in the production of the championship’s official anthem.
Jamaican sensation Bolt will be in Budapest as a Special Ambassador for the Ultimate Championship and will be among the highlights of the pre-event Press Conference, Media Day and the Kids' Athletics activities where the Red Carpet will be rolled out with athletes, media and content creators having a two-hour, unrestricted interaction to, inter alia, bond and generate content.
Just over a week ago, World Athletics released the special Ultimate Championship anthem sung by Sweden’s multiple pole vault world record holder Duplantis and, as the event’s MC and Creative Adviser, side-hustling Lyles will certainly consider it on repeat mode for the playlist this weekend.
“I haven’t had a chance to listen to Mondo’s song,” Lyles confessed on Tuesday. “I was actually wondering if I should ask him to perform it on the night of the party, so I’ll get to that later when we meet…”
Pole vault champion Armand "Mondo" Duplantis during the production of the Ultimate Championship’s official anthem 'Gold' in Budapest recently. (Photo / World Athletics)
Track and field fans are in for a special treat from Budapest with World Athletics introducing augmented reality in a new-look television production; the special anthem; selected fans’ access into usually restricted athlete areas; an Ultimate Fan Challenge quiz competition and a new event mobile app ahead of the massive party planned for the event venue, the Gyula Zsivotzky National Athletics Centre, which was constructed for the 2023 World Athletics Championships.
Biggest Payday in Track and Field History
The new-format Ultimate Championship assembles World and Olympic champions alongside top-ranked athletes in three days of competition that boasts the biggest payday in track and field history with each of the winners in the 28 finals reaping big from the $10 million (Sh1.3 billion) prize purse.
All athletes are assured of boosting their bank balances with event winners pocketing $150,000 (Sh19.5 million) each, the awards trickling down to $75,000 (Sh9.75 million) for second place, $40,000 (Sh5.2 million) for third, $25,000 (Sh3.25 million) for fourth, $16,000 (Sh2.80 million) for fifth and going 16-deep with $2,000 (Sh260,000) for athletes finishing in 16th place.
Winners of the relays will split $80,000 (Sh10.4 million) between them, meaning that each winning team member takes home at least Sh2.6 million.
And Lyles has been brought in to ensure the athlete-centric after-party is one for the ages. “It (preparation for the Ultimate Championship party) has been intense. We, kind of, a little bit got behind the ball because I’ve been working in so many different places, giving my opinions on different projects… but in the last week, we went from very little to almost everything done in a span of a week. That has given me a lot of confidence. We have talked about how we are going to honour the athletes at the championships… we want them to feel that this is their night and everything is for them,” MC Lyles explained.
“Every Ultimate champion will be awarded with not only a moment, but with an intro of a song, they will have their own section in the party and we will make a moment of the accomplishment that they made… If an athlete is from the US, then we shall have a champagne bottle and a big marquee sign with the athlete’s name on it, and on the LED screen we shall be flashing photos of their win and the music will be going on…
Brought in Personal DJ
It would certainly be interesting to see what song Kenya’s 800m Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi will pick, having previously confessed his love for the Luhya beat. Could Lyles be prompted to cue Sukuma Bin Ongaro’s ‘Mama Kamale’ or Jacob Luseno’s ‘Mukangala’ on his playlist?
Jamaica's sprints legend Usain Bolt, Dominican jumper Thea Lafond, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe and Sweden's pole vault world record holder Mondo Duplantis during the World Athletics' Ultimate Championship Media Party at Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building on September 11, 2025. Bolt is a Special Ambassador of the Ultimate Championship and will be at Thursday's pre-event press conference in Budapest. (Photo / Mattia Ozbot for World Athletics)
“We will make them feel as soon as they enter the stadium, they are transported into a night that they will never forget,” Lyles disclosed, also revealing that he has gone out of the way to personally ensure a vibrant entertainment menu: “I have brought in my personal DJ - or one of them - and he is making sure that we have a plethora of different cultures involved in the music.
“I know for sure - and it’s something I’ve made with all my parties - we will have a heavy Caribbean influence, because if the Caribbean athletes are happy, the party is jumping!”
Earlier, Lyles, who has been battling an ankle injury, had taken to Instagram to announce his “unfortunate” withdrawal from the Ultimate Championship, having had to cut his season short due to the prolonged discomfort.
“Unfortunately, I come with some not so good news… me and my coach decided that we are going to end my 2026 season due to injury. It’s been kinda complicated. We thought it was very simple, unfortunately, after running at the USAs National Championships, we found out that I had a small strain, not very serious, and the rehab that we were putting together was going on well,” Lyles said in his video message.
The American had gotten his season off to a flier, matching his career-best 9.79 seconds – the season’s fastest time to date - at the Icahn Stadium in New Jersey in July. The previous month, he had clocked a world record 14.67 seconds in the rarely-run 150m at the Ostrava Golden Spike Meeting in the Czech Republic.
Kick off 2027 with a Bang
“Unfortunately, because of the strain, it caused other things to flare up and it has made it hard for me to continue practicing. We decided that we’ll just end the season here, get ready for 2027-2028, which are going to be humongous years.”
Lyles assured that he would make up for his absence from the track by staging an after-party to be remembered for a long time, and promised to “kick off 2027 with a bang.”
“I still have a party to throw and behind the scenes to help support the athletes to just go out there and be the best people that they can be. I still believe there will be an interesting competition and I’m excited to watch that, and I’m even more excited with what the future is going to bring. This is reassurance that we are going to kick off 2027 with a bang and give it our all.”
A screengrab of US sprints superstar Noah Lyles (left) during Tuesday's media call moderated by World Athletics' Laura Arcoleo. Lyles is Creative Director at this weekend's World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest. (Photo / Elias Makori)
Speaking on the media call on Tuesday, Lyles explained that the injury had also forced him to skip training: “While I was waiting, I couldn’t physically practice and if I can’t practice, I can’t race. That’s what the decision came down to and even when my coach was in Europe calling me and like ‘hey, what are we doing,’ I was very reluctant to be like ‘I can push this’ and, in reality, I had to come to my senses and say I really can’t really keep pushing through this as I could end up getting worse. It was a decision where we weighed all the options and tried to hold it off for as long as possible.”
(elias.makori@ymail.com)
