One Piece’s fans include not only kindergarten teachers, office workers and doctors, but also athletes. Many high-ranking athletes who have even competed in the Olympics have been inspired by Luffy and his friends. They motivate themselves before and after the competitions with poses from the anime.
The One Piece anime has been on everyone’s lips for a few weeks now. Luffy has finally awakened his Gear 5 and thanks to the Netflix series, the franchise has gained some fans. But even before these events, One Piece was very popular with many athletes.
In the following list we present you five different poses that athletes have used for motivation or as a victory pose for their upcoming competition.
Olympic athlete imitates Franky’s super pose
The cyborg Franky is known for using the word “super” a lot. When the Straw Hat Gang meets Franky, he introduces himself to them, scantily dressed, in this pose where he folds his arms together so that his drawing on his arms forms a star.
Payton Otterdahl used this pose to motivate himself at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. He is a track and field athlete who specializes in the shot put and therefore has arms that are about as big as Franky.
Unfortunately, Otterdahl’s pose was only enough for 10th place. You can see his super pose in the following video on YouTube:
Luffy’s Gear 2 appears in the Olympic Games
At the same Olympics, there was another athlete who came out as a fan of One Piece. Miltiadis Tentoglou specialized in the long jump and triple jump and even won the gold medal at the Olympic Games.
When the Greek came out during his introduction, he clenched his fist and placed it on the ground. He crouched down a little. As he revealed in a later interview, this is a reference to Luffy’s Gear 2.
The video shows both the interview and Tentoglou’s pose:
This is a technique that Luffy uses to perform pumping movements to increase his blood pressure. This increases his speed and strength many times over. Apparently the pose also worked for the Olympic champion and gave him strength in his legs.
Gear 3 also makes an appearance
The Summer Olympics in Tokyo were apparently full of athletes who love One Piece. There is a third athlete who caused a stir with his victory pose.
Like Tentoglou, the Italian walker Massimo Stano won a gold medal. However, shortly before crossing the finish line, he doesn’t show Luffy’s Gear 2, but his more pronounced Gear 3.
The following video on YouTube shows what this looks like:
It looks like Stano is biting his finger. Luffy uses the same technique to inflate the bones in his hand, creating a gigantic fist. Luffy’s attacks are slightly slower due to the technique, but Stano seems to have made them faster.
His victory pose caused such a stir that even the One Piece team thanked him on Instagram, as seen in the video.
Gear 5 comes from no stranger
The Greek Miltiadis Tentoglou insisted on using a second pose from Luffy in another competition. In August of this year he won the gold medal at the World Championships in Budapest. Does his success have anything to do with One Pice?
This time, Tentoglou went one step further and showed Luffy’s Gear 5. When Luffy awakens the ability, he starts laughing while covering his stomach and face. Right at the beginning of WonderIandian’s video, which we have linked here, you can see how the athlete imitates the pose.
With Gear 5, Luffy has reached the highest level of his power. This ability defies the laws of physics. Luffy can change his body size at will and turn his surroundings into rubber. This allows him to grab lightning bolts, for example, or use them as a pole to dodge.
German footballer is also a fan of One Piece
One Piece has also become a trend among athletes in Germany. BVB professional Julian Brandt imitated a pose during a soccer game, this time not from Ruffy, but from his competitor Trafalgar Law.
Law has the ability to create a space that he can control at will. To do this, he has to create a dome, for which he spreads his hand and tilts it towards the ground. With the other hand, for example, he can swap places, which Julian Brandt would probably have liked to do with the football and the goalkeeper.
His shot on goal led to a 2-0 win for his team. A fan took the trouble to create a special video in which Julian Brandt is animated as Law:
Brandt’s love for One Piece did not go undiscovered. He was now even allowed to visit the recording studios in Germany that are responsible for dubbing the anime. Brandt will take on a small role in the anime and voice a character (via YouTube).
In addition to the examples mentioned, there are several other athletes who are big fans of the anime and were inspired by One Piece in their poses. The fact that some of the poses were seen during the Summer Olympics in Tokyo could be because the anime comes from Japan.
One Piece has guest appearances not only in the world of sports, but also in other anime and animated series:
5 animes and series in which One Piece was incorporated as an Easter egg