National Football League

Tyreek Hill chirps at Noah Lyles' 'World Champs' take, says he'd beat track star in race

Updated Aug. 12, 2024 5:12 p.m. ET

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Noah Lyles may be an Olympic gold medalist, but the American track star is still ruffling feathers among his athlete peers — including the one NFL star who might be able to keep up with him in a race.

Superstar Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill pushed back on Lyles' viral take from last year that teams and players who win championships in American sports leagues like the NBA and NFL should not be considered "world champions."

"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," Hill said in an interview with FanDuel TV.

Hill himself knows a bit about track too. He ran track in college and even won the men's 60-meter dash at the 2023 USA Track & Field Masters Indoor Championships. 

When asked whether he would like to race Lyles, Hill went a step further.

"I would beat Noah Lyles," Hill said. "I wouldn't beat him by a lot, but I would beat Noah Lyles."

Lyles directed his initial comments more at the NBA, prompting a backlash from several top basketball stars, including Kevin Durant and Devin Booker — who went on to win a gold medal themselves for Team USA Basketball at the Paris 2024 Olympics that ended last weekend.

Lyles, meanwhile, won his first career gold medal in the 100-meter dash at those Olympics along with a bronze in his signature event, the 200-meter, amid a bout with COVID-19. His and the USA men's basketball team's successes in Paris have brought his comments back to the surface. The USA Basketball account alluded to it with a post celebrating the men's gold medalists captioned, "Are we the World Champs now?" 

Durant also trolled Lyles on social media after his bronze. Lyles went viral for comments he made in a TIME Magazine profile bristling when invited to a shoe launch event for fellow Adidas athlete Anthony Edwards, the young Minnesota Timberwolves star who also just won a gold medal with Team USA.

Hill is not the first NFL star to take a swipe at Lyles. After the track star won gold in Paris, Indianapolis Colts linebacker Zaire Franklin called Lyles his "least favorite American" in a social media post.

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