Japanese media hailed Olympic 100m gold medalist Noah Lyles as the world’s fastest anime fan after the American celebrated his win by miming an attack from Dragon Ball.
Just five thousandths of a second separated the US champion from Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson — a thrilling finish that was the event’s closest in modern history.
Wrapped in a US flag after the race, an over-the-moon Lyles thrust his hands forward, fingers splayed, imitating the “kamehameha” attack used to unleash a powerful burst of energy in the Japanese manga and anime franchise.
Photo: Reuters
Twenty-seven-year-old Lyles has made no secret of his love for Japanese pop culture, including comics and cartoons such as global megahit Dragon Ball. The series began airing in 1986.
At the Olympic trials in June, he delighted fellow anime enthusiasts by whipping out his Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and showing them off to the cameras.
Yu-Gi-Oh! ran in the Japanese weekly comic magazine Shonen Jump between 1996 and 2004 and gave rise to a media franchise including a trading card game.
“Mankind’s fastest otaku,” blared a headline in Japanese sports newspaper Daily Sports — using the term for hardcore superfans in a new nickname also used by other outlets.
The French men’s fencing team also paid homage to Dragon Ball when they made “kamehameha” gestures in unison after winning bronze.
However, it is not the only anime that has inspired Olympians.
Brazilian volleyball player Darlan Ferreira Souza was seen in Paris with a tattoo on his arm featuring a slogan from Haikyu!!, a series about high-school volleyball clubs.
The tattoo, saying “omoide nanka iran” (We do not need memories), elated Haikyu!! fans in Japan who saw the ink as proof of the anime’s reach and impact.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
RSS