When Noah Lyles isn’t raking up his speed on the track, he spends time pursuing his love for all things anime and manga, including his extensive Yu-Gi-Oh! card collection that he often has on him for good luck. And, this time its no different either. He’s all prepared to embark upon a new journey, a new story.
In his recent Instagram story, he talked about wanting to start a new anime, and he chose the cult classic One Piece for the occasion. Testifying under his girlfriend, Junelle Bromfield’s presence, he promised fans to begin soon since he had some time to spare.
One Piece, which recently also had a live-action series on Netflix, is a popular manga series written by Eiichiro Oda that was serialized later. It has over 1000 episodes, including some fillers that do not pertain to the main plot, and Lyles knows he will have a lot to catch up on to complete the series.
“I’ve tried twice. I’ve read the manga for fifty chapters. And I watched about, 10-12 episodes.”
But now, Lyles feels fully prepared to take on the huge series, knowing that he would have to set some time apart for the show. To this, Bromfield assured him that he could afford to watch the show and get it done by the end of this year since he did have some time on hand this season.
“I have time at this point in the season…to watch it…I should be done before December. So, I’ll see you guys throughout the journey, and on the other side.”
Lyles had previously summoned all ‘otakus’ during his appearance at the Olympic trials at Oregon, where he put up a big show of his Yu-Gi-Oh! cards along with Snoop Dogg. Since then, fans have been wanting him to dive deeper into his geeky side.
How Lyles hyped up his Olympic trials with long-kept secret
For the longest time, the iconic sprinter had sparked some mystery surrounding a particular briefcase he’d carried with him during various race meets. Fans were curious about the contents of the case, and Lyles was waiting for the perfect moment to unveil the grand secret.
It wasn’t until the 2024 Olympic trials that he finally came up with the silver briefcase and had an icon join him for the occasion. Snoop Dogg, who had been Team USA’s biggest cheerleader at Paris, accompanied him to open this briefcase of secrets at the trials.
It turns out that the case contained one of the rarest Yu-Gi-Oh! trading cards – Exodia the Forbidden One. Lyles went on to carry this card with him, placed under his tracksuit, before he ran for the trials.
Eventually, it became his lucky charm as he paced towards the finish line first, thus qualifying for the Olympics this season.
