"Tyreek Hill talks that talk"- Justin Gatlin and Rodney Green weigh in on reported face-off between Noah Lyles with Miami  Dolphins star

By Animesh Pandey

Modified Oct 20, 2024 05:32 GMT

Justin Gatlin is quite interested about the upcoming clash between Olympic champion sprinter Noah Lyles and NFL wide receiver Tyreek Hill. The former sprinting legend talked about the clash in length with former Olympian Rodney Green in his recent podcast about the Olympic medalists in the men's 100m event.

In the podcast show 'Ready, Set, Go', the hosts discussed the impending clash between Lyles and Hill, and who has a better shot at winning the race. Gatlin mentioned about a similar race between Olympic champions Donovan Bailey from Canada, and Michael Johnson from the USA. In the 150-meter dash contested between the two, which was to decide as to who is 'the fastest man on the planet', Bailey won it hands down.

To this, Green replied:

"It do, it do, and people talk that talk when they, when they, I mean I seen Tyreek [Hill] man, Tyreek talk that talk. But when he get back, he gonna realize, 'You know what, I'm gonna running against a real track and field runner.... So it ain't like you running against your homeboys, or yeah I mean so, it's just, it's just gonna be different for him, man." [Rodney Green segment, 26:00 onwards]

For the unversed, NFL player Tyreek Hill, who plays for Miami Dolphins as a wide receiver, challenged Noah Lyles' victory at the Paris Olympics, and challenged him to a one-on-one dash. Initially Lyles dismissed him as an attention seeker. However, when things went out of hand, the Olympic champion accepted the challenge.

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Justin Gatlin on Noah Lyles' chances against Tyreek Hill

Justin Gatlin [Extreme right] reflects his opinion on Noah Lyles' chances against Tyreek Hill [Image Source : Getty]

Justin Gatlin further talked about the upcoming race with Rodney Green on his podcast. Noah Lyles and Tyreek Hill will be competing against each other in 2025, as a part of the 'Super Serious on Sight' series, hosted by Terry Crews, and his co-founders.

Gatlin presented a realistic outlook about the race. In his words,

"How sharp is Noah going to be, right? We know Noah is a little inconsistent with his start, and his ankles exiting the blocks. We know that the best part of the race is always the second half of his race. The best advantage Tyreek has coming into this is catching Noah not at his sharpest."

However, the former sprinter from Bahamas had a different opinion.

"Tyreek doesn't have, I don't think he has a chance. If they race, for Tyreek to have a real deal with me, you know what I mean, this is an opinion, I feel like it has to be somewhere around 30m," said Green.

"You're talking about Noah racing against people of his caliber, Tyreek is not of his caliber," he further added.

Justin Gatlin won the Olympic gold medal in the men's 100m at the Athens Olympics in 2004. Until the Paris Olympics in 2024, no American sprinter had managed to win the Olympic gold medal in the 100m event. However, Noah Lyles had edged out Kishane Thompson from Jamaica to end the gold medal drought after 20 years at the Paris Olympics 2024.