Olympic Sprinter Noah Lyles Can’t Contain Excitement As League of Legends World Championship Heads to US Cities
Track sensation Noah Lyles beamed with happiness as the host cities for the 2026 League of Legends (LoL) World Championship were announced. The Worlds are known to be one of the biggest esports tournaments of the year, earning the title of most-watched esports tournament ever back in 2023.
Lyles, who is known to be a big gaming enthusiast, has shown his support for the team 100 Thieves on many occasions.
How Did Noah Lyles React To The Host Cities Of The 2026 Worlds Being Announced?
Lyles has enjoyed immense success this year, winning the gold medal in the Men’s 200m at the World Athletics Championships to add another milestone to his decorated career. The American kicked back and relaxed following the end of his season, and was most recently seen at the New York Comic Con event where he stopped by the Crunchyroll booth.
The 2026 League of Legends World Championship is set to be held in two cities this year: Allen, Texas, and New York City. In a post on X, Lyles shared his reaction to the announcement:
“WE ARE SOOO BACK!!”
Outside of LoL, Lyles has previously shown his love for Yu-Gi-Oh and Dragon Ball Z, showcasing his personality outside of track and field. In fact last year, he received a custom-made Yu-Gi-Oh keyboard thanks to a collaboration between 100 Thieves and his sponsor, Adidas.
He will be rooting for them to win at the 2026 Worlds after they were eliminated in the knockout rounds by T1 (0–2 series loss) in last year’s edition of the tournament.
Lyles On His Passions Outside Of The Sport
At the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Lyles showed his support for the anime fandom by doing celebratory poses inspired by Dragon Ball, highlighting once again how much he loves the genre. In an interview with Athleta Mag ahead of competing in Tokyo, he stated that he has a lot of anime-related projects in store:
“Since I’ve started doing walk-ins, adidas has been very supportive and have given me access to many of their shoulder brands and collaborations to keep these events closer to my brand – which they’re a big part of.
Our anime project from the 2020 Olympics also tapped into a big interest of mine, and we will do that again at the World Championships in Tokyo in September. This time with fans in the stands. We are working on some other very exciting projects at the moment, and you will see more through the rest of this year as some of these start to get released.”
Around the time of the World Championships in Tokyo, Lyles released a special anime-inspired apparel collection with Crunchyroll and Adidas. One can expect the American to be involved in a few more anime-related collaborations this year.
