Japan’s female artistic swimming team brought video games into the spotlight at the 2024 Olympics this past Tuesday by performing to the tune ofNier: Automata‘sOST.
The Japanese team used “A Beautiful Song” as a part of their highly energetic freeform dance routine, and came just six points short of winning a medal.
The beautiful happening was noticed by Emi Evans, the singer who’d originally lent her vocals to the OST:
How cool to have my voice playing at the Olympics again! Thank you Japan team for using A Beautiful Song during your routine!https://t.co/scxyAvLeGA
And the event didn’t go unnoticed by Yoko Taro, the creator of theNierseries himself, who responded by, well, making his face on Twitter.
（◎血◎）Thank you !https://t.co/9WmbM3n2Rk
This is not the first time thatNier: Automatamakes an appearance at the Olympics. The opening ceremony of Tokyo’s 2020 Olympics also featured one of the game’s fantastic songs:
You can totally see that the generation currently competing at the Olympics has games in its DNA, as evidenced by Noah Lyle, the already legendary runner destroys the competition while keepingYu-Gi-Oh!cards under his equipment.
Noah Lyles really pulled out a Yu-Gi-Oh! card for his 100m intro. 😂(Blue-Eyes White Dragon, for those wondering.)#TrackFieldTrials24pic.twitter.com/GaBqKzH2xF
Gymnast Casimir Schmidt also proudlydisplays tattoos of Mew and Toad on his huge arms.
This isn’t even the first time a video game’s OST shows up at the artistic swimming competition. The United States artistic swimming duo also made use of the brilliant “Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec” way back in the Athens 2004 Olympics, and ended uptaking home the bronze medal.
Japan’s song choice makes me very happy, because I’ve been preaching thatNier: Automata‘s soundtrack is a transcendent selection of music ever since I got to play the game, but the truth is that we’re long past the time when video game OSTs were just fun curiosities. There are many games nowadays whose OSTs are composed of nothing but bangers, so I must ask: which game’s soundtrack would you like to see featured in the next Olympics artistic swimming competition?
