Paris Olympics Channels Son Goku With Team USA Star Noah Lyles

The 2024 Summer Olympics are fit to burst with anime references as participants have been transformed into anime characters and athletes are paying tribute to the medium. In recent days, Olympian Noah Lyles has worn his love of anime on his sleeve by sporting cards from the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise during his foot races. While Lyles has shared his love of “dueling”, the athlete paid tribute to another big anime franchise following winning gold at the Summer Olympics. Charging up his own energy attack, Noah let loose a fictional blast that pays tribute to Son Goku and many other brawlers in the Dragon Ball franchise. 

Aside from Lyles, we’ve seen quite a few anime franchises making landfall at this year’s Summer Olympics. Various sharp shooters wielding pistols had such aura that many netizens took the chance to imagine what they would look like if they had their own anime franchises. On the volleyball side of the aisle, German player Tobias Krick brings a plushie of Haikyu character Tsukishima to all of his events. Aside from loving the series, Tsukishima and Krick share the same position on their respective teams. With this year’s Summer Olympics ending on August 11th, there might be more anime surprises in the games’ remaining days.

Noah Lyles Goes Super Saiyan 

Immediately following the winning of Olympic Gold in the Men’s 100-meter sprint, Lyles took the chance to unleash a Kamehameha all his own. Throughout the history of the Dragon Ball franchise, the energy blast has easily been the most widely known of all the attacks that were used by both heroes and villains alike. With a new anime series arriving this fall in Dragon Ball Daima, it is almost a guarantee that we’ll see the technique make a comeback to the small screen.

If you want to learn more about Dragon Ball Daima, here’s how Toei Animation breaks down the upcoming anime adaptation, “Due to a conspiracy, Goku and his friends are turned small. In order to fix things, they’ll head off to a new world! It’s a grand adventure with intense action in an unknown and mysterious world. Since Goku has to make up for his petite size, he uses his Power Pole to fight, something not seen in a long time.”    

Want to see what other anime references are made in the Summer Olympics? Follow along with Team Anime on ComicBook for the latest updates on anime hitting the real world.