I’ve raced Noah Lyles – he’s very different to Usain Bolt but it’s not just him threatening insane records
Usain Bolt's world record sprint in the 100m stands as the longest ever in the history of the sport - but who can break it?
This summer will see the best sprinters in the world line up in the 2024 Olympics with exactly that on their minds - and Bolt's legendary times may finally be bested.
American track star Noah Lyles has quickly garnered a reputation as one of the favourites after some stunning races in the build-up as well as his larger-than-life personality.
The charisma, the talent, the ability - there are certainly echoes to Lyles' game comparable to Bolt who smashed the 100m record in 9.69 seconds at Beijing 2008 - a record he broke a year later in Berlin at 9.58 seconds.
And Team GB sprinter Adam Gemili, part of talkSPORT's star-studded list of Olympic pundits, thinks the 26-year-old can finally live up to Bolt's legacy.
When asked who could take Bolt's mantle at the upcoming Games, he told Drive on talkSPORT: "I'd say right now, that is the way it is going.
READ MORE ON OLYMPICS
"[Lyles] is certainly the sprinter with the biggest personality and he does it in a very different way to Usain.
"You can see that... I wanna say he is more geeky? Pulling out Yu-Gi-Oh cards during runs!
"But then he loves it, and people love him for it. Because he is just himself whereas with Usain, a lot of athletes saw him and said, 'this guy is cool'."
While Lyles has already gathered a fanbase and critics in equal measure, he certainly has some rivals as Gemili went on to add that Jamaican athlete Kishane Thompson and current Olympics champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs will be right up there.
The 30-year-old, who has competed in three Olympic Games and has seen first hand how fast Lyles is, listed three things that need to happen for Bolt's records to be in danger. "People don't realise how fast it really is and these are the top one per cent of guys in the world.
"For them to even get close to that [record], they'd have to run the perfect race with the perfect conditions and be as fresh as possible.
Most read in Olympics
"Usain did it after four rounds of the 100 and he came back and ran the world record in the 200 after another four rounds of the 200.
"I don't think people realise how insane those times from Usain are and how really hard they are to get close to.
"But Noah, he can get close to it. Kishane Thompson, the Jamaican, also. He's run really well.
"And you can't count out [Lamont] Marcell Jacobs, who is the Olympic champ so, on the day, who can beat who."
Thompson made his personal best just last week when he ran 9.77 seconds in the Jamaican Olympic trials.
It has made him the talk of the town going into the Olympics, which begin on 26 July.
The 22-year-old still has plenty of work to do to narrow his time down to Bolt's record of 9.58 seconds but there is no better stage than Paris in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, Lyles' personal best in the 100m is 9.83 seconds, though the 26-year-old will be competing in several other events as well.
Read More on talkSPORT
Italian star Jacobs took gold at Tokyo 2020 when he beat American Fred Kerley and Canadian Andre De Grasse with a time of 9.80 - and will have high hopes to shave even more time off his race this summer.
The Olympics are on talkSPORT this summer, and you can tune in via our free online streaming service at talkSPORT.com