Just days after Tyreek Hill posted a video flaunting his 100-meter dash time on social media, the highly anticipated race between the Miami Dolphins wide receiver and Olympic gold medalist Noah Lyles has been called off. Speaking on a panel in France on Monday, Lyles revealed the showdown was actually scheduled for this weekend in New York’s Times Square but fell through due to unspecified “personal reasons.”
The two had previously agreed to race sometime in 2025, following a public back-and-forth last August shortly after Lyles became the first American since Justin Gatlin in 2004 to win Olympic gold in the 100 meters.
“We were very deep into creating the event,” Lyles said. “In fact, it was supposed to happen this weekend. Unfortunately, there were some things, complications, personal reasons that it just didn’t come to pass. But, I mean, we were full in. We were going to have a big event. We were going to shut down New York Times Square and everything. We were going to have all the billboards planned for the event. It was going to be a lot of fun.”
Hill posted a video Friday of himself running a 10.15 in the 100 meters at the preliminary heats of the Last Chance Sprint Series in California. While still off Lyles’ personal-best 9.79 — set during the Paris Games last August — Hill’s time at least showed he was serious about the challenge. He even fired a shot at Lyles, holding up a sign that read, “Noah could never.” The move echoed Lyles’ own jab back in February, when he won the 60 meters at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix and held a sign that read, “Tyreek could never.”
Hill doesn’t seem too content that the race has been called off, taking another jab at Lyles on social media Tuesday suggesting the Olympic champion backed out after seeing his time.
“I’ll take this moment, because what we were dealing with was a lot of people didn’t believe it to be true,” Lyles said Monday explaining why the race fell through. “They thought it was just, ‘Oh, this is just them talking online.’ You know, we had to bring it to fruition. So we had to talk. And they were like, ‘Oh, we don’t believe that not only the people in the common, but also the companies, they don’t believe it’s real.’ It’s like, don’t worry, I’ll take care of this. I know what to do. And it’s not going to look gimmick. It’s not going to look to a point where it’s staged. It’s going to be right on the money. Trust me.
“And when you have the confidence to be able to know that you’re going to win the race, then you get the confidence to be able to say this is my opportunity and I get to do with it as I please.”
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