TOKYO — American athletes may terrify competitors on their way to winning Olympic medals.
And they may be terrifying, or at least mystifying, them on the medal podium with their big, protruding, white pleated masks specially designed for the occasion.
Social media wags have likened them to something the villain Bane in the Batman movies might wear, or Hannibal Lecter.
“The unique origami-inspired pleated design allows for optimal air flow and air volume within the lightweight, mesh mask,” a company statement said.
Although thickly woven, they are not N95s, the kind of masks that filter airborne particles at high efficiency, the statement said.