It's not easy to outrun a cheetah...or someone nicknamed "Cheetah."
Miami Dolphins star wide receiver Tyreek Hill showed that on Saturday by winning the 60-meter indoor sprint at the USA Track and Field Masters Indoor Championship in Louisville, Kentucky. The 29-year-old, often labeled the fastest player in the NFL, recorded a time of 6.70 seconds, leaving his opponents well behind as if they were overmatched cornerbacks.
Although he didn't flash his trademark peace sign as he usually does when he outruns his competition on his way to the end zone.
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Hill, a world-class sprinter in high school, wore a speed suit from his alma mater Coffee High School. It was there that he won two state championships and was named an All-American. In 2012, he ran the 200m in 20.14 seconds at age 18, placing him sixth in the U.S. to qualify for Olympic trials. Hill elected not to run in trials at the time.
While being interviewed during Super Bowl media day in 2020 while with the Kansas City Chiefs, Hill said he was serious about trying to qualify for the U.S. Olympic track and field team.
“Hopefully after this season, if I’m healthy and my mind is still in the right place, I really want to try to qualify for some Olympic teams,” Hill said at the time. “Even go to Penn Relays, give that a try. Get a few guys off the [football] team put a relay together and show these track guys, hey, football guys, hey, we used to do this back in high school, man. We still got it. I just want to have fun with it.”
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics were then postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Super Bowl champion and four-time All-Pro never got the opportunity to win Olympic gold, but he does have the distinction of being the NFL's fastest ball carrier of the Next Gen Stats era, reaching a speed of 23.24 miles per hour in 2016 on a 105-yard kickoff return that was nullified by a holding penalty.
Hill finally returned to the track on Saturday, competing in his first race since 2014.
Per NBC Sports, masters meets typically do not include active Olympic-level athletes and are for athletes ages 25 and up. Hill’s personal best in the indoor 60m is 6.64, which he ran in 2014. Top times in the event are typically between 6.40 and 6.50 seconds.
Despite the result, Hill joked on Twitter that he has run his last race.
"Never racing again had me out there looking wild," he tweeted after his victory.