Noah Lyles, who snagged gold and bronze at the Paris 2024 Olympics, recently shared some surprising details about his upbringing, revealing he was part of what he calls a cult as a kid.
Noah Lyles is shedding light on his family’s past. The speedy Olympian, who bagged gold and bronze medals at the Paris 2024 games, talked about growing up in a religious setting he now describes as a “cult.”
“I actually grew up in a cult,” he said with a chuckle on the Everyone Wants To Be Us podcast on Aug. 12. “Well, it wasn’t—it was a cult, it just wasn’t at the level of, ‘Yeah, okay, we’re gonna drink Kool-Aid.’ But it was super strict.”
The 27-year-old runner, who made waves by clinching a bronze in the 200m sprint despite testing positive for COVID, went on to describe some of the group’s strict rules.
“All moms had to be homeschooling their kids and the father was the head of the household,” he explained. “The church told you who you could date and who you couldn’t date. If you got married, it had to be through us, that type of behavior.”
Eventually, his family, including parents Kevin Lyles and Keisha Caine, decided it was time to leave.
“That’s why we moved to North Carolina,” he continued. “We were going to start another church, only to figure out they were going to do the same thing, except they wanted to be the head. So we left that. But that really kind of messed up my view on church, and it definitely messed up my mom’s view.”
While Noah mentioned his mom still has trust issues with organized churches, she keeps her faith, which helped Noah build his own beliefs.
“Having instilled that in us at a young age, it made it easier for me to go throughout my own journey,” Noah added. “Everybody gets that idea like, ‘Is there really a God?’ And something that I love is that when I was young she said, ‘God says when you lack faith, ask for a test.’ And he will provide the test.”
Though Noah considers himself a committed Christian, he no longer follows the rules of any particular church.
“I don’t have time to go to church every weekend,” he laughed. “I’ve got to run.”
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