Justin Gatlin Won’t Blame Noah Lyles For Racing W/ COVID, ‘This Is An Olympic Dream’

Justin Gatlin ain’t blaming Noah Lyles one bit for hitting the Olympics observe whereas optimistic for COVID … telling TMZ Sports activities the chance to safe a medal merely outweighed the opposite dangers — a minimum of, in his thoughts.

After all, there have been many detractors within the sports activities world who felt in a different way … as they believed the American endangered his fellow rivals and others within the space when he selected to run the 200-meter closing on Thursday in Paris whereas symptomatic for the coronavirus.

However Gatlin — a USA observe legend — instructed us on Friday he would have finished the very same factor … explaining, “that is an Olympic dream you could have, man.”

Do not get it twisted — the 42-year-old did not downplay the seriousness of the illness — telling us, “I’ve had a member of the family who has handed from COVID.” He simply stated he thinks the developments in medication have mitigated quite a lot of the potential points.

“That is one thing that I believe with Noah,” Justin stated, “nothing was going to cease him from attending to that beginning line and making an attempt to offer this all his finest.”

Gatlin went on to say that as a result of the Video games solely occur each 4 years, he feels Lyles did not have a lot of a selection within the matter.

“This isn’t just like the NBA Finals the place it occurs yearly,” he stated. “Or the Tremendous Bowl the place it occurs yearly. It is by no means a, ‘Effectively, you may get ’em subsequent time!’”