Noah Lyles can easily say he’s one of the fastest men alive, but his run with a streamer left people stunned and basically picking their jaws off the floor.
A Olympics athlete vs. a streamer at their event sounds like a pointless activity.
Imagine a social media influencer looks at someone like swimmer Michael Phelps and goes… “yeah, I can do that, let’s run a race”.
Well…that’s pretty much what happened except it was in athletics and the athlete is not retired but pretty much at the top of his game and the current Olympic 100m gold medalist, none other than Noah Lyles.
But it wasn’t just any influencer who challenged Lyles, but the popular IShowSpeed, and as the name suggests, the 19-year-old is impressively fast.
But how well does Speed, real name Darren Jason Watkins Jr., match up to a world-class Olympic sprinter? Well… damn good.
IShowSpeed did quite well against a world-class athlete (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
This week Speed took on Lyles in a $100,000 50m sprint and it was surprisingly close.
In fact, so close some fans say the streamer should consider getting official training and think about competing.
Although it was an impressive performance from Speed, Lyles won but not by a wide margin.
Although it must be said, the athlete probably did not run as hard as possible because he even turns his head and looks at the streamer as he passes him before the finish line.
After the race, Speed claimed it was a draw before being shown evidence that he actually lost. Lyles even twisted the knife a bit more by saying he started going high after taking the lead towards the end.
But still, people on social media were very impressed with Speed’s effort and performance.
Noah Lyles even mocked Speed a bit after the win (John Nacion/Getty Images)
Writing on YouTubewrote one fan: “A 19 year old kid came so close to the fastest man alive.
“Now imagine what would happen if he was professionally trained.”
Another said: “I don’t know about you all but the race being SO CLOSE is actually MIND BOGGING. Full Props to Speed.”
A third wrote: “Speed narrowly lost to the Olympic champion, right after a 3 hour drive. That’s impressive. Big W.”
Another added: “The fact that Speed was so close to winning and he conceded defeat while hitting 33 million in one day is a HUGE achievement. Congrats Speed and keep practicing!”
With another impressed viewer commenting: “I’m extremely impressed!! I understand what speeds are saying. He’s never had any form of training before but he relies on his natural talent. It’s insane the fact that speed actually gave this one the man a race when he has never exercised an ounce before.”
