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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Sean Ingle

Athletics can’t keep kidding itself – it needs a five-pronged plan to save track and field

Noah Lyles (right) with Darren Watkins
Noah Lyles (right) with Darren Watkins, known on YouTube as IShowSpeed, attracted 3.5m views when they raced. Photograph: youtube

The world’s fastest man is being trash-talked by a YouTuber. “Are you ready man?” asks Darren Watkins, AKA IShowSpeed, on a live stream broadcast around the world. “You know my name’s Speed, right? And you know I am going to win.” Noah Lyles, the Olympic and world 100m champion, smiles at the teenage upstart. Then he bites back. “You gave yourself that name? That’s so cute.”

The pair agree to race over 50m for $100,000. Speed confesses that he has never worn a pair of spikes before, but keeps telling his 43.8m followers that he can beat Lyles. As the pair line up, Speed does a backflip. Then the YouTube megastar, Mr Beast, who has 431m followers, fires the starter’s gun.

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