There’s a reason Usain Bolt resides at the top of the food chain. While the Jamaican continues to be the benchmark when it comes to the world of track and field, there is no shortage of people who keep throwing shade at his achievements. With the 2024 Olympics around the corner, a plethora of stars have claimed to be heading to Paris with the aim of usurping his throne. However, not all of Bolt’s challengers come from the track fraternity.

The debate of how NFL stars would fare against the likes of Noah Lyles or Bolt has become a trending affair across the country’s sporting scene. While a conclusive verdict is yet to be delivered, Bolt believes the football stars have negligible chances of edging past his records.

Usain Bolt holds back a chuckle

In his recent post on X, Bolt shared snippets from the podcast of the former Denver Broncos star Shannon Sharpe. In the podcast, the ex-football tight end enquires to his co-host as to who they thought would win if Usain went head-to-head with Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill for a 40y-dash. Noting that Bolt ran his last race at the 2017 World Championships, Sharpe said Hill would take the race. However, Bolt wasn’t having any of it.

The world’s fastest man looks confident about his prowess even now as his post came with the caption, “Not even in a next universe.” From the looks of it, Bolt is pretty sure that his best time in the 40y (4.22, set at the 2019 Super Bowl Combine) is in no threat by the current NFL sensation.

However, the hosts did accept that it would be a whole different argument if the race were to happen when Bolt was in his prime and training regularly. One of the hosts then floated the idea about a similar race between Christian Coleman and Tyreek, to which Sharpe had to agree that Coleman would “…blow the doors off Tyreek“. Considering how Coleman recently achieved a significant milestone himself, it’s probably true.

Bolt’s records face stiff competition on all fronts

Coleman is one of the biggest hopes for the USA to bring gold from Paris in the 100m and 200m events, and a couple of days ago, he proved his worth once more. At this year’s Super Bowl Combine, the three-time World Championships gold medalist ran the 40-yard dash in 4.12 seconds, smashing Bolt’s 5-year-old record in the process. After winning gold at the Xiamen Diamond League in the men’s 100m sprint, Christian claimed that Usain wouldn’t be sitting atop his throne for too long, and his latest display of speed seems to have bolstered his point, despite many fans not being convinced about seeing such thing happen any time soon.

On the other hand, Noah Lyles also boasted that he will be flying to Paris with the eye on bagging gold in all four events (100m, 200m, 4x100m, and 4x400m), a feat that even Bolt doesn’t have in his resume. While more and more athletes keep setting their sights on Usain Bolt’s elite status, only time will tell if any of them have what it takes to surpass the eight-time Olympic gold medalist.