Lyles, 24, who won Olympic bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Games before setting the fastest time in the world this season, 19.52sec, at the Eugene Diamond League meeting, went public with his mental health issues in 2020.

"It was pretty straightforward," he told insidethegames shortly before taking part in a TrueSport discussion on mental health organised by the United States Anti-Doping Agency.

"It wasn’t really an issue of what people think about me.

"It was more a situation where I felt that the anti-depressants worked really well, and I knew that a lot of people were now probably struggling with anxiety and depression, and I just wanted to kind of break a stigma that 'people don’t have to go on medication' or 'medication is a bad idea, it’s for people who are crazy'."

Asked if he thinks many other Olympians are on anti-depressants, he replied: "To be honest, I don’t know - a lot of people like to hide their personal lives.

"That’s not bad, as long as they are getting help for it if they need it.

"I do believe that everybody deals with mental struggles in one form or another.

"Last year I was diagnosed with depression - I had just been able to handle it really well.

"But as we went to lockdown, the Black Lives Matter movement started increasing, and every day it seemed like I was seeing another young person dying in the street, followed by a school shooting, followed by me not feeling like I could do anything….

"Even practice was hard, and you weren’t getting that energy out.

"Nobody was really happy, everything was really stressful.

"That definitely took me over the edge in terms of how much I could handle.

"You can definitely be in a very strong depressed state and somebody can come up to you and be like, listing off all your achievements, saying you are such and such a person, the fastest person in the world, had the most fastest times, three Diamond Leagues, world champion…and all you are hearing is 'nothing, nothing, nothing'.

"It’s like none of that is important, none of that gives you joy, none of that is likeable. 

"It’s literally like, 'why are you telling me this thing? I don’t care about this'.

"So having achievement when you are in a depressed state is pointless.  

"Everything just kind of feels pointless."

His statement last year evoked a widespread reaction.

"A lot of people have talked to me about it on quite a few platforms and even in person," he said.

"People were like, I saw your interview and it was very heart-moving."

Lyles and his younger brother have since established the Lyles Brothers Sports Foundation to "empower youth through the advancement of health and wellness in the community."

Lyles spoke at the TrueSport event alongside Sochi 2014 figure skating bronze medallist Gracie Gold and double Rio 2016 Paralympic sprint champion Deja Young-Craddock.

For the full story, see this week'sBig Read on insidethegames.