Olympic Gold Medalist Noah Lyles Is Officially Going To Race NFL Star Tyreek Hill 1-On-1

It’s been like an old Hollywood stare down for months, only the stakes continue to rise for both Noah Lyles and Tyreek Hill.

Now it’s official.

Lyles, the 27-year-old Olympic gold medalist at 100 meters and six-time world champion, will face off against Hill, a 30-year-old one-time Super Bowl champion and five-time NFL All-Pro wide receiver, in a 1-on-1 duel at some distance that has yet to be named, it was reported by People on Thursday.

“This has been an ongoing thing for quite some time now, and I mean, everybody’s seen the back and forth on social media,” Hill told People. “I’ve been very adamant to show people what real, true speed looks like.”

When Will Noah Lyles Race Tyreek Hill?

The race will reportedly happen in the spring or summer before the U.S. Outdoor Championships in July.

The announcement comes only weeks after Lyles – who officially holds the title of World’s Fastest Man with his win at 100 meters with his 9.79 second time – held up a sign following his win in the 60 meter dash at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix that read “Tyreek Could Never.”

Lyles, who was featured in the first two seasons of the Netflix documentary “Sprint,” won the early-season indoor race in a time of 6.52 seconds, a performance which currently ranks No. 8 in the world.

The barbs have been ongoing for months–maybe even years.

Perhaps they officially started in 2023 when Lyles declared at a press conference for the World Championships in Budapest that professional athletes in major sports are not world champions when they win domestic titles – “World Champions of what?” he said.

The remark picked up global attention, while Lyles became the ire of professional athletes who suggested that he stay in his lane. Nevertheless, Lyles went on to win his first 100 meter global championship in Budapest in 9.83 seconds.

In August, fresh off an Olympic gold in Paris at 100 meters, Hill challenged Lyles to a race at 50 yards, to which Lyles shot down by forgetting Hill’s name in an interview. In November, Lyles then raced YouTube star “IShowSpeed” head-to-head and won – though maybe not as dominant as some would have assumed.

“Everybody says that they’re gonna be the world’s fastest, but when it comes down to it, you gotta be the winner every time, each and every time, and every time I show up in the biggest moments, I win,” Lyles told People.

Track And Field Is Set For Major Change In 2025

This all comes at an important time for track and field athletes.

Lyles was notably absent from the initial professional roster announcements for Grand Slam Track, a newly-designed league formed by Olympic legend Michael Johnson aimed at jumpstarting the future of the sport.

Lyles, however, has partnered with Super Serious, the production company owned by actor Terry Crews. The production company has an agreement with incoming track league Duael to produce an elimination-style tournament featuring Olympic and professional athletes.

If this is all connected, it’s clever timing and a potentially brilliant marketing strategy. In the meantime, the stakes of Lyles versus Hill continue to grow.

Hill is a former high school star from Georgia and collegiate sprinter with some serious chops, having clocked a time of 20.14 seconds for 200 meters when he was still a teenager – at the time, it was the second-fastest performance at the distance ever recorded. However, while elite at the high school level, it would not be competitive in the professional ranks.

Hill ran just one indoor season at Oklahoma State, registering a time of 20.57 for 200 meters, earning a Big 12 championship and an All-American finish at nationals.

Just How Competitive Will This Race Between Noah Lyles And Tyreek Hill Be?

Will this race even be close? In March, Hill registered for an indoor race in Louisville – competing officially for the first time in nine years through USATF’s Masters’ division – and looked rusty, crossing the finish in 6.70, a time nowhere near the upper echelons of the sport.

That being said, Hill told people, “got to do this for the guys that play my sport” and “we can come and take over your sport at any moment if we wanted to.”

It should be said that Lyles has always been faster at every point over his career. He clocked a then-high school national record of 20.09 for 200 meters in the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2016 as a high school senior.

Lyles earned his first Diamond League win in 2017 and his first World Championship title in 2019.

In August, a confident Lyles was entered in the 100, 200 and 4×100 relay at the Paris Olympics, but after winning the 100 meter title, finished third in the 200 and bowed out of the 4×100, later revealing he picked up COVID.