Olympic windsurfer Kiran Badloe claims his Last Airbender haircut helped him clinch the gold medal in Tokyo.
Whether you agree with the games going ahead or not, the Tokyo Olympics are in full swing right now. From the opening ceremony to the athletes and the events themselves, there have been plenty of references to video games and various other elements of pop culture. However, Kiran Badloe might have been sporting our favorite so far.
The windsurfer won a gold medal in his sport for his home country of the Netherlands over the weekend. If you're not familiar with Badloe, odds are you won't be forgetting him after reading this. Badloe has an incredibly distinct haircut inspired by Avatar: The Last Airbender. That's right, the Olympic athlete has an arrow shaved into his hair that he has dyed blue.
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It isn't just to demonstrate his love of the series either. The windsurfer believes that his unique hairstyle helped him win a gold medal for his country. Well, The Last Airbender's Aang has the ability to bend all four elements, so it makes sense that someone who needs to bend two of them in order to be better at their sport than anyone else would want to do all they can to try and make that happen.
“I need to be in tune with the wind and in tune with the water and everything around,” Badloe told Reuters. “I have been able to piece something together in these Olympics races, so I think it worked in my favour.” Not outright saying a blue arrow on his head won him a gold medal, but perhaps a nod to Aang and trying to channel his love of The Last Airbender and the show's elements gave Badloe the push he needed to be the very best at his sport.
Elsewhere at the Olympics, a number of themes from video games throughout history echoed out around the opening ceremony for the world to hear. No sign of Mario though, and apparently there were originally plans to have Lady Gaga emerge from a warp pipe. Another gold medalist was spotted wearing a Witcher medallion.