Noah Lyles, who won a gold medal at the Paris Olympics for the 100m sprint, faced off against YouTuber IShowSpeed
Noah Lyles can easily say he is one of the fastest men alive but his race with a streamer left people stunned and basically picking their jaws up off the floor.
An Olympic athlete versus a streamer at their event kind of sounds like a pointless activity.
Imagine a social media influencer looking at someone like swimmer Michael Phelps and going… ‘yeah I can do that, let’s have a race’.
Well…that is pretty much what happened except it was on track and field and the athlete isn’t retired but pretty much on top of their game and the current Olympic 100m gold medal holder, none other than Noah Lyles.
But it wasn’t just any influencer that challenged Lyles, but the popular IShowSpeed, and as the name would suggest, the 19-year-old is impressively rapid.
But how well does Speed, real name Darren Jason Watkins Jr., match up to a world-class Olympic sprinter? Well… pretty damn well.
This week, Speed took on Lyles in a 50m sprint for $100,000 and it was surprisingly close.
In fact, so close some fans are saying the streamer should consider getting official training and think about competing.
While it was an impressive performance from Speed, Lyles did win but not by a massive margin.
Though it has to be said, the athlete likely wasn’t running as hard as possible as he even turns his head and looks at the streamer as he passes him before the finish line.
After the race, Speed did claim it was a draw before being shown proof he did in fact lose. Lyles even twisted the knife a little bit more by stating he started high-stepping after taking the lead towards the end.
But even still, people on social media were very impressed with Speed’s effort and performance.
Writing on YouTube, one fan wrote: “A 19-year-old kid got that close to the fastest man alive.
“Now imagine what would happen if he was professionally trained.”
Another said: “I don’t know about y’all, but the race being THAT CLOSE, is actually MIND BOGGLING. Full Props to Speed.”
A third wrote: “Speed barely lost against the Olympic champion, straight after a 3 hour drive. That’s impressive. Huge W.”
Another added: “The fact that Speed was so close to winning and he admitted defeat while hitting 33 million in one day is a HUGE accomplishment. Congrats speed and keep training!”
With another impressed viewer commenting: “I’m extremely impressed!! I understand what speeds saying. He’s never had any kind of training before but he’s depending on his raw natural talent. It’s insane the fact that speed actually gave this man a race when he’s never had a ounce of training before.”