"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."
"As the pair line up, Speed does a backflip. Then the YouTube megastar, Mr Beast, who has 431m followers, fires the starter's gun. This isn't track and field as we know it. But thousands of people are watching, commenting, waiting to see what happens. The result isn't a surprise. But that hardly matters. The 39-minute video of the encounter last November has now had 3.5m views on YouTube making it by far the most watched athletics race on the platform since the 2024 Olympics."
"Harries was arguing that Speed v Lyles had created more hype and drama and had more views than this year's Diamond League. It sounds preposterous. But Lyles' 100m race in London has been viewed 137,000 times on YouTube. While perhaps the most thrilling race of 2025 in which the young Dutch star Niels Laros comes from 50m back to win the Bowerman mile in Eugene, has just 5,700 views."
An online 50m exhibition between YouTuber Darren Watkins (IShowSpeed) and Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles drew massive global attention, a $100,000 prize, and 3.5 million YouTube views after Mr Beast fired the starter's gun. The spectacle included a backflip, a challenger who had never worn spikes, and fan engagement that far outstripped many professional meets. Major athletics events and standout races on the traditional circuit received far fewer online views. The gap highlights a marketing and engagement problem: athletes and competitions must combine entertainment, storytelling, and creator-driven formats to win broader digital audiences.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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