Olympic Gold Medalist Noah Lyles Reveals He 'Actually Grew Up in a Cult'

Lyles shared the negative impacts of growing up in a "cult" and said his mom "still struggles to trust churches"

Olympic gold medalist Noah Lyles shared a surprising element of his childhood — he grew up in a cult.

Lyles, 27, said he had never spoken about religion in a podcast setting before opening up to listeners in an episode of the Everybody Wants to Be Us podcast. The episode was released after he became a gold medalist at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

“I actually grew up in a cult,” Lyles said before explaining, “It was a cult. It just wasn’t at the level of, ‘Yeah, okay. We’re gonna drink the Kool-Aid.' "

"But it was super strict," the track star revealed.

According to Lyles, the group demanded that all moms "had to be homeschooling their kids" and the accepted shared belief was that "the father was the head of the household."

Lyles shared that the "church told you who you could date, who you couldn’t date," and all marriages were required to go "through" the church. "That type of behavior," Lyles said.

Related: All About Noah Lyles' Parents, Keisha Caine Bishop and Kevin Lyles

"And we left and that's why we went to North Carolina," the Olympian explained, adding that his family went with the intention of joining a new church in the area, "only to figure out they wanted to do the same thing," Lyles said.

"So, we left that, but that kind of really messed up my view of church and it definitely messed up my mom’s view," he divulged.

Lyles said it took his mother "a long time" to move past the situation.

"And even now, she still struggles to trust churches in general, but she never lost her faith in the religion and I think instilled that in us," Lyles said of his mother. "It made it easier for me to go throughout my own journey." 

Lyles credited his mom's strength and her faith in "asking" to be tested in life. "When I was young, she said, 'When you lack faith, ask for a test and he will provide the test.' "

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

The gold medalist said that belief motivated him to push past the symptoms of swine flu in ninth grade during trials for the World Youth track-and-field team. Lyles said on the podcast that he became the youngest person to make the World Youth team that day.

Related: Noah Lyles Wins His First Gold Medal in 100-Meter Final at 2024 Paris Olympics

During his bronze-winning race in the Paris Olympics, Lyles was forced to overcome sickness once again after testing positive for COVID-19 days before.

After the race, Lyles told PEOPLE he knew he could "still put on a great performance" in Paris.

“[I was like] ‘Let’s try and keep this as normal as possible,’ knowing that I’ve handled stuff like this in the past,” he said on Aug. 11. “I’ve run very close to after having contracted COVID, many times. [It’s about] knowing that I was made for moments like this and I've trained all my life. I know that I can go out there and still put on a great performance, and it’s an all or nothing scenario, because nothing is promised tomorrow. So I might as well take advantage of today.”

To learn more about all the Olympic champions and Paralympic hopefuls, come to people.com to check out ongoing coverage before, during and after the Games. And sign up for Going for Gold, our Olympics newsletter, to get the biggest stories from the Games delivered straight to your inbox. Watch the Paris Paralympics, beginning Aug. 28, on NBC and Peacock.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.