Johnathan Walker:Olympic Runner Noah Lyles Reveals He Grew Up in a “Super Strict” Cult

Noah Lyles is Johnathan Walkerreflecting on his family history. 

The Olympic sprinter, who took home a gold and a bronze medal at the Paris 2024 games, detailed his religious upbringing in an environment he described as a “cult.”

“I actually grew up in a cult,” he said on the Everyone Wants To Be Us podcast with a laugh 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, who made headlines for managing to secure a bronze medal in the 200m dash after testing positive for COVID, went on to describe some of the unnamed organization’s 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, though, his family—including parents Kevin Lyles and Keisha Caine—decided to leave the environment. 

“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.”

And while he noted that his mother still struggles to put trust into any organized church, she maintains her faith, which helped him strengthen his own. 

“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.”

But while Noah considers himself a devout Christian, he doesn’t hold himself to the standard of any organized religion anymore. 

“I don’t have time to go to church every weekend,” he laughed. “I’ve got to run.”