There is a time-tested mantra that Keisha Caine Bishop, mother to Noah Lyles, developed years ago as she faced unforeseen challenges in her life. It’s stuck with the family ever since.
“In our house we call it ‘BBA,’Â bounce back ability,” Caine Bishop said with a laugh.
Going through a divorce and struggling to keep the lights on – literally – a close friend of Caine Bishop’s asked her: “Are you OK?”
“The answer was ‘no,'” Caine Bishop remembered, “but I told her, ‘I will be.’ Because by then I knew if I built it once, I can build it again. So I think as a family, just overcoming adversity and knowing yeah, BBA, bounce back ability. We can do it.”
Lyles, the men’s 100m champion and 200m bronze medallist at Paris 2024, has showcased plenty of ‘BBA’ in his career, including during these Olympic Games as unexpected circumstances arose. Lyles is always ready for a curveball, says Caine Bishop.
“It’s really amazing to see the growth and the transition and his willingness to persevere through adversity,” Caine Bishop told Olympics.com in an interview. “And I think that’s why he’s really comfortable with just being himself.”
Lyles faced plenty of adversity in Paris, in particular testing positive for Covid-19 days ahead of the 200m final. He would still end up on the podium, saying after that he was “more proud of myself than anything, coming out here to get this bronze.”
“I think the personal growth is the biggest difference,” Caine Bishop said of the Lyles who won bronze in Paris versus the one who did the same at Tokyo 2020 in 2021.
