100m Olympic gold medallist, Noah Lyles, brushes off criticism of his nail art

The Olympian is known for wearing nail designs during his sporting and personal appearances, but has received backlash for this while on the international stage at the Paris Games.

During the Olympics opening ceremony on 26 July, the athlete showcased a white nail look with the word ‘ICON’ painted in blue across nails. For the 100m final, Lyles sported a mix and match manicure, with blue and white star designs on his thumbs, index fingers and little fingers, while on his middle fingers were red crosses and on his fourth fingers red lightning bolt nail art.

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But some social media users have criticised the star for his nail styles, with comments including that painted nails are just for women.

Responding to this in an interview with US Weekly on 30 July, Lyles commented: “I’m a person who knows that a lot of people have different opinions and they have them for different reasons. To be honest, I’m so confident in myself that it doesn’t really matter. I think it’s funny at times.

“Sometimes it’s like, ‘Hey, I know you were brought up this way, but I was brought up that way,’ and the fact that you can’t see the differences of why I might do it, I find that entertaining.

“You know, people like me because I do this. I’m just being myself.”