Kansas City Chiefs star Tyreek Hill is busy getting ready for the Super Bowl but he has another prize in mind when the big game is over after this Sunday. The speedy wide receiver is wrapping up a season that some didn’t think he would play in back in June or July. Now that he’s dominated the NFL again, he wants to try his hand at the Olympics.
Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk reports Hill’s interest in the Olympics isn’t just a passing fancy. He really does want to be an athlete at the next games. In particular, the speedster has said he wants to try out for the track team in some capacity.
“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.”
According to Bleacher Report , he’s looked into the process of competing in the 2020 games in Tokyo, which will take place from July 24 to August 9.
It’s not like Hill is coming up with running track out of the blue, as the Chiefs star did the same when he was in high school. The difference now is that he’s put on some weight in order to play football in the NFL.
Hill says his 195-pound frame is about 20 pounds heavier than it was when he was running track in grade school. He added he’d have to change his whole diet if he wanted to shed those pounds. It would seem to be even more difficult to do that in the time it would take to try out for the United States’ Olympic team.
Smith points out the Kansas City wideout would have to be considered an “extreme longshot” to make the Olympics. He’d be going up against athletes who had been preparing for the competition for years, rather than months. Still, analysts agree he definitely has the speed to be considered “world-class.”
The issue is the speed in the NFL is different than it is on the track. When talking to the media this week, it was also unclear whether he had talked to anyone on the team about his desire to spend the spring and summer prepping for an entirely different sport.
Whether the Chiefs win or lose the Super Bowl on Sunday, it would stand to reason the team would rather have their star wide receiver spending his time getting ready for another run in the 2020 season.