Olympic gold medalist Noah Lyles said he was prepared to race Miami Dolphins star wideout Tyreek Hill in New York before plans fell through.
Speaking at a Sport Beach event in Cannes, France, on Monday, Lyles spoke about the proposed event that seemingly came to fruition after several months of back-and-forth trash talk.
“We were very deep into creating the event. In fact, it was supposed to happen this weekend,” Lyles said, per the New York Post. “Unfortunately there were some things, complications, personal reasons that it just didn’t come to pass, but we were full on.
“We were gonna have a big event, we were going to shut down New York Times Square and everything, we were gonna have all the billboards for the event, it was going to be a lot of fun.”
Lyles did not elaborate on the “complications” or “personal reasons” that he referenced.
Lyles, 27, won the gold medal last summer at the Paris Olympics in the 100 meters and is a three-time world champion, winning the gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m events in 2023.
Hill, 31, entered a track meet on Friday in California and won the 100-meter dash in a personal-best 10.15 seconds.
After the event, Hill held up a sign that read, “Noah could never.”
Actually, Lyles has easily bettered that time. His winning time in Paris was a personal-best 9.79 seconds.
Noah Lyles-Tyreek Hill race off due to ‘personal reasons’
