"Sha'Carri Richardson is not the world's fastest woman"- Noah Lyles makes stance clear on comparison between American and Julien Alfred

Noah Lyles gave his take on who was the fastest female sprinter in the world between Sha'Carri Richardson and Julien Alfred. While Richardson is the reigning world champion, Alfred won the Olympic 100m title in Paris last year.

Lyles holds both the world title and Olympic title and is a consensus 'fastest man of the world,' a title given to the 100m dash winner of the previous world or Olympic Games. However, with Richardson and Alfred sharing different titles, the 27-year-old said on the Toure Show Episode 468 podcast:

“Well, Sha’Carri Richardson is not the world’s best… Julien Alfred is.”

The 27-year-old then noted that an ultimate winner would be chosen at the 2025 World Championships in September this year.

“Now we have a World Championship winner in Sha’Carri and an Olympic champion in Julien Alfred. Those two need a race—it will be the real world’s fastest one," Noah Lyles added

Alongside Richardson and Alfred, Lyles is also set to compete at the 2025 World Championships, which are scheduled for September 13-21 in Tokyo, Japan. He won three titles, including the 100m-200 double at the last edition in Budapest, becoming the first man since Usain Bolt in 2015 to achieve the feat.

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Noah Lyles is eyeing Usain Bolt's 200m world record

Noah Lyles at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix - Source: Getty

Speaking in an interview with Olympics.com before the 2024 Paris Olympics, Noah Lyles said he had two things left to do in his career. One was winning the Olympic gold medal, and the other was breaking a world record.

“Grabbing a world record is one of two things that I still have left to do: one being grabbing an Olympic gold, and then, two, grabbing a world record," he said

The 28-year-old is the third fastest man in history in the 200m and has set his heart on breaking Usain Bolt's 19.19s iconic run.

“I say that the 200 is the easier of the two,” he explained to reporters at the US Olympic Team Trials 2024. “[I’m] not saying that they're easy, per se. But for sure, that's the one that I have my heart set on the most.”

However, Lyles was diagnosed with COVID-19 a day before the 200m finals at the Paris Olympics and finished third behind in 19.70s. He, however, did win the 100m finals, beating Jamaica's Kishane Thompson by five thousandths of a second.