In a finish so close it’s ‘never been seen before’, Noah Lyles became the world’s fastest man at the Olympics on Sunday (4 August). The US athlete clinched the gold medal in the men’s 100m race by 0.005 seconds in a mad photo finish. Lyles secured a personal best of a crazy 9.79 seconds with all eight other finalists finishing within 0.12 seconds of him.

But his amazing win last night didn’t come quietly as there had been a whole load of talk around the athlete – particularly from fans of a certain sport who haven’t been so happy with Lyles. The Olympian previously made a controversial point about what – let’s be honest – a lot of us have been thinking about American sport.

Picture by 2024 Getty Images

In what became an absolute viral moment, Lyles took aim at the National Basketball Association (NBA) during last year’s World Athletics Championships. The athlete rubbed some people up the wrong way when he was asked about the state of athletics on a global scale.

“You know the thing that hurts me the most?” he began. “I have to watch the NBA Finals and they have ‘world champion’ on their heads.” And as many of us might agree with when it comes to the stage of American sports, Lyles asked: “World champion of what? The United States?” Iconic to be honest – because it seems very fair.

“Don’t get me wrong. I love the US at times. But that ain’t the world. That is not the world – we are the world,” he continued. “We have almost every country out here fighting, thriving and putting on a flag to show that they are represented. “There ain’t no flags in the NBA. We have to do more. We got to be presented to the world. “I love the track community, but we can only do so much within our own bubble. “There’s a whole world out there.”

But while some may agree with what he said, a lot of the NBA ‘world’ was not happy as player Kevin Durant said: “Somebody helps this brother. However, following his impressive win last night, many have now shown further support for Lyles on social media. As one NBA fan joked: “Noah Lyles you survived the 100M hate watch. We will reconvene in the 200M,” New York Knicks star Josh Hart wrote: “Lol na he an Olympic gold medallist. He can talk for life.”

Featured image by: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports