- Noah Lyles’ mother sends Aussie Ollie Hoare encouragement
- Hoare was targeted by online trolls through social media
- Lyles’ mum told runner to not let the critics steal his joy
Middle-distance runner Ollie Hoare has received a heartfelt message from the mother of Paris 100-metre sprint gold medallist Noah Lyles after the Aussie revealed he was targeted by trolls on social media.
Hoare, 27, failed to reach the semi-finals of the 1500m after finishing a disappointing third-last in his heat, before crashing out in the repechage round, resulting in his Olympics dream coming to an end.
However, in a candid interview Hoare said disgraceful messages received before the repechage round had a huge impact on his mindset heading into the race.
‘My Instagram has been really bad after that (the heat),’ the Commonwealth Games gold medallist said.
‘It was a terrible race and I’ve been abused on Instagram so I had to delete it.
‘I probably should have deleted Instagram before I went into the village but I miss my friends. It’s an easy way of communication when you’re not living at home.
‘So that was tough. I think that kind of affected me a little bit, I haven’t slept great.’
Ollie Hoare (pictured) has received a message of encouragement from the mother of 100-metre sprint champion Noah Lyles
Keisha Caine Bishop (pictured hugging her son Noah after he won the 100m sprint gold medal) told Hoare to not let critics steal his joy
The Sydney-born runner said vile trolls also targeted his partner.
‘If I have a bad race or if something goes wrong there could be a possibility of that happening and I have to just tell it to p**s off,’ he said.
‘They don’t know that I couldn’t walk in November, they don’t know what a lot of athletes go through and sometimes it’s their day, sometimes it isn’t.’
Keisha Caine Bishop, mum of sprint champion Noah Lyles, posted a heartfelt message to the Aussie in response to his post.
‘As the mother of Noah Lyles, I totally understand how you feel,’ she wrote on Instagram.
‘Those people who say mean things are not happy people in themselves. Don’t allow them to steal your joy.
The Commonwealth Games gold medallist says he will be stepping away from Instagram
‘You are valuable, you are worthy, and I support you. Remember the quote from a famous poem, ‘it is not the critic who counts.”
Hoare has announced he will be stepping away from Instagram until the end of the athletics season, and has received wide support from fans and other athletes.
Federal independent senator and former Wallabies rugby star David Pocock commented on Hoare’s message, posting the full quote from a famous Theodore Roosevelt speech that Lyles’ mother was referencing.
The late US President is famed for his ‘The Man in the Arena’ address, which he gave in Paris in 1910.
In it, Roosevelt said: ‘It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.’
