Noah Lyles is not afraid to be bold with his grand plans.
Only injury and the vagaries of the global athletics calendar - which mean the Americans have no major championship this year - have prevented Lyles from already being a household name, for it seems inevitable that this is going to happen.
Lyles is the fastest man in the world this year over both 100m and 200m, running 9.88sec for the former and a quite incredible 19.65sec for the latter.
He believes he will one day run 100m in 9.41 seconds. Usain Bolt holds the record at 9.58 seconds.
Had he not picked up an injury at the US trials last year, the chances are he would have walked away with a world 200m title won in a relatively pedestrian 20.09sec.
CUSTOMISES HIS OWN SHOES
Those times alone are enough to stake his claim as the next big thing in the sport, but it is his effervescent personality, evident before and after he routinely beats the world's quickest sprinters, that has led to suggestions he could do more than that by transcending athletics in the way Usain Bolt did.
Lyles regularly shows off dance moves from popular video games and YouTubers on the start-line, he backflips in celebration and when racing on May 4 - also known as Star Wars Day - this year he wore R2D2 socks and swung a make-believe lightsaber to mark his victory.
He customises his own shoes, raps original songs and in February had the word "Icon" tattooed below his rib cage as a statement of what he wants to be.
This is not arrogance, just the natural exuberance of a 21-year-old who thrives on showmanship, with the athletic ability to back it up - a man who genuinely cares about the sport."Me, my mum and brother [400m runner Josephus] always talk about transcending the sport and making it better known," he says. "Track and field in America isn't that big until the Olympics comes around and I want to change that.
"I've got a lot of kids come up to me and say they've only heard my songs and they've never seen me run. At first, I get upset, but then my mum says, 'well you can't be upset, that means you're transcending the sport'. And I'm like, 'you know what, you're right'."
BEANPOLE-LIKE PHYSIQUE
The eldest son of two hugely talented 400m runners, Lyles won Youth Olympic 200m gold in 2014 before claiming the World Junior 100m title two years later and only missing out on the US Olympic team by one place while still at high school. Last year - his first full season as a professional - he became only the fourth teenager to break 20 seconds for the 200m.
Even now, Lyles's lack of physical maturity is immediately apparent in his beanpole--like physique that he admits he is longing to fully develop. "Everyone has their special talent when it comes to running - I have a unique ability to have a lot of endurance and be able to hold my top-end [speed] for longer than most can," he says."I just have to wait for my body to develop more and more and hope that my muscles get stronger and stronger. Until then, I'm going to keep working on my technique, hoping I can put together a perfect race overall."
Talk is already of how fast he is capable of going. More naturally suited to 200m, he has spoken of joining the elite band of sprinters - alongside Bolt, Yohan Blake and Michael Johnson - who have gone below 19.50sec.
Lyles believes he can be the first man to run under 9.5secs for the 100m.
In Birmingham his attention will turn to the 100m, where he faces one of the toughest line-ups this season, including compatriot Christian Coleman, who won world silver last year, former world champion Blake, and Britain's European gold and silver medallists Zharnel Hughes and Reece Prescod.
Lyles believes he can go close to 9.85sec in that race, but he dreams - literally - of going much, much faster.
"I had a dream in 2016 and, I was preparing to run the semifinals and the clock flashed 9.41sec," he recalls.
"I ran up to my mum and said, 'Mum, I just ran 9.41sec', and she was like, 'That's nice, Noah'.
"I do think I can run 9.41sec. I don't know when it's going to happen, but I'm going to try my best to make it happen."..