The ‘Fastest man Alive’ tag is up for grabs again, it seems! And no, we’re not talking about an Olympic race to decide these world-athlete’s fates, but rather some ambitious claims being thrown around. We all saw how Noah Lyles beat Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson by a miniscule 0.005 seconds to claim his maiden Olympic gold, and silence the naysayers. However, there are still many who believe Lyles is easier to beat than it looks. Case in point: NFL wide receiver Tyreek Hill.

Ever since the US track & field athlete ruffled some feathers by claiming NBA folks are not world champions, he’s earned the community’s wrath left and right. For the unversed: Last summer, the 27-year-old had said, “You know what hurts me the most is that I have to watch the NBA Finals and they have ‘World Champion’ on their head. World champion of what? The United States? Don’t get me wrong, I love the U.S. at times, but that ain’t the world.” And as expected, NBA players jumped into the conversation—“Somebody help this brother,” 2x NBA champion Kevin Durant had responded, while Pheonix Suns’ Devin Booker had simply sent a face-palm emoji. Hill, on the other hand, also joined the conversation, though he had a rather unique challenge for the Olympian…

“For him to say that we’re not world champions of our sport like come on bruh, just speak on what you know about, and that’s track,” the WR had said before adding, “I would beat Noah Lyles. I wouldn’t beat him by a lot, but I would beat Noah Lyles.” Promptly, Lyles had fired back: “What’s the cheetah guy from football? Well, I can’t remember his name… I would coach Tyreek Hill to run track,” thus launching one of the most confusing feuds of contemporary times. I mean, in what universe does a 185 pound, five-foot-eight NFL guy feud with a sprinter? But if you thought the duo has stopped trading blows, you couldn’t be more wrong—thanks to YouTuber IShowSpeed.

Recently the young content creator set himself up an ambitious goal. On November 6, IShowSpeed live streamed a video on YouTube, titled, “SPEED vs NOAH LYLES 🏃🏾💨 (FASTEST MAN ALIVE),” and it’s exactly what you think it is. Hilariously, Mr. Beast turned up as referee and as the two folks went head-to-head for a 50m dash. “If you beat him, I’m gonna give someone random in your chat a $100,000 tonight,” said the YouTuber-turned-referee to Speed. Ofcourse, it was expected that Lyles would beat his opponent by a comfortable margin, until that didn’t happen. As the two started running, for the initial part, the YouTuber looked to have the upper hand before a jolt of energy sent Lyles to the finish line first. Still, the race was much closer than expected, and of course the Miami Dolphins star was elated.

“And track athletes think he gone beat me 😂😂😂,” he wrote while retweeting a tweet by FearBuck, captioned, “Different angles show how close IShowSpeed was to beating Olympic gold medalist Noah Lyles”. 

This comes months after Lyles had responded to Hill again, after winning his Olympic gold, in a conversation with Shannon Sharpe. The athlete had said he’s ready for a 100m dash if the NFL player is “truly serious” about it. “Sign the contract and lock in that 50 yard race,” Cheetah had wrote back then. Notably, Hill’s confidence stems from his USA Track & Field Masters Indoor Championships win last year, where he won the 60m dash with a blistering 6.70 seconds. The world record is 6.34 seconds, set by Christian Coleman in 2018.

Having said that, Tyreek wasn’t the only one surprised at seeing an Olympic gold medalist get almost beaten by Speed.

No one expected Speed to be speedy

TMZ Sports Michael Babcock had his say on the final results, “Wild. @ishowspeedsui is an elite athlete and no one can convince me differently. Hanging w/@Lyles Noah.” Even the fans who watched the clip online were baffled by Speed almost getting the better of the six-time World Champion, “Nah, the fact Speed even came close to beating him is insane.” While another fan spoke about the fine margin that helped Lyles maintain his reputation, “It was closer than I thought.”

Well, the video evidence shown later did have Lyles scrambling to get a clear mandate. Some fans also claimed that Lyles was actually trolling, “Noah was trolling him.” There were also a few others who said he was just chilling and didn’t give his best, “Lol Noah Lyles legit was just chilling. Y’all need to relax, he only ran just fast enough to win. He definitely didn’t run his fastest.” But Speed was indeed taking the race seriously, as he had been claiming himself the fastest man in the world for some time.

Update: 200m Olympic gold medalist Gabby Thomas also joined the conversation to defend her fellow athlete on the same thread. “This wasn’t close…like at all,” she wrote, accompanied by a crying-laughing emoji.

As for the $100,000, when Mr. Beast asked Noah who he’d like to donate the money to, the latter hilariously responded: “I’d love for Speed to have it but the kids I’m working for need it more,” inducing a fit of laughter from Beast. Interestingly, Lyles isn’t even the first Olympic track and field athlete the YouTuber had challenged. Going back a few months, he had also called Polish track and field sprinter Ewa Swoboda for a race. Although he did accept the challenge, the race never happened.

Now that the Speed episode is over, will we see Dolphins star Tyreek Hill get on track and field and take on Noah Lyles in the near future? Well, we might, considering Hill’s possible reignition of the social media trash talk they had going back in August. What do you think?