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Kalan Hooks, ESPN
American sprinter and Olympic gold medalist Noah Lyles raced on Wednesday, but not for any medals.
Instead, the three-time medalist competed for $100,000 against streamer IShowSpeed.
IShowSpeed, whose real name is Darren Watkins Jr., has over 33 million subscribers on Twitch. During a stream on Wednesday, Watkins received a FaceTime call from YouTuber MrBeast, who was with Lyles in Florida. What seemed to be a regular call from the YouTuber caught Watkins off guard when he saw Lyles standing beside MrBeast, whose real name is James Donaldson.
“Look who I got right here,” Donaldson told Watkins over the phone.
Watkins quickly recognized Lyles and wasted no time challenging the 27-year-old.
“Noah, aye, race me!” Watkins said to Lyles.
Lyles responded to the challenge confidently.
“When you wanna lose, man?” Lyles replied.
“I need to prove the world I’m the fastest man alive, bro, and I need to race you, so me and you need to race,” Watkins told Lyles before asking about Lyles’ whereabouts.
Behind Lyles and Donaldson was a tub of money with “$100,000” spelled out as MrBeast told Watkins that Lyles could beat him in a race.
Lyles and Donaldson were at a track in Orlando, Florida, when they called Watkins, who was in Miami.
“Noah, I promise I’m going to beat you. My name is Speed for a reason,” Watkins said moments before ending his stream and making the three-hour drive.
As the two lined up at the 50-meter start line, Lyles laid down a rule to Watkins.
“No matter what, you cannot stop during this race,” Lyles said. “After the second step, you will lose all hope and you will want to stop the race. Do not stop this race, run through the line.”
As Donaldson set off the starting gun, the two strode neck-and-neck before Lyles began to pull away, mocking the streamer’s running form and crossing the line first.
Watkins claimed the race was a tie, leading the two to review footage from the race on an iPhone.
“There am I, and there you are back there,” Lyles said.
Watkins requested a rematch with the Team USA sprinter. Lyles turned it down, but he presented the 19-year-old with another opportunity.
“You should practice with me, and then at the end of the week we’ll race again. … And then you’ll be faster, you’ll know what to do, you’ll have the technique, you’ll have an advantage and then we can run the real man’s race: the 100,” Lyles told Watkins.
Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill, who also challenged Lyles over the summer, reacted to the race on X.
And track athletes think he gone beat me 😂😂😂 https://t.co/FYuFqUcxVZ
— Ty Hill (@cheetah) November 7, 2024
Lyles won the 100-meter dash at the 2024 Paris Olympics with a time of 9.79 seconds, beating Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson by .005 seconds and making him the first U.S. man to win the race since Justin Gatlin in 2004.
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