U.S. women’s soccer forward Lynn Williams lamented how an Olympic gold medal has become “the most expensive roller coaster in the world.”
In a video posted to TikTok this week, Williams, who plays for NJ/NY Gotham FC in the NWSL, gave a play-by-play of his journey to winning the medal.
“I thought it was finally time to answer the questions you’ve been waiting for… How did you destroy the medal? How did you get your hands on the most expensive coaster in the world?” Williams asked.
She explained that the medal had a bar to which a ribbon was attached, and recalled the moment she waved it around in joy after receiving it.
“The irony is, that’s not what broke it… Sure it didn’t help, but that’s not what broke it,” Williams said, revealing the real cause of the damage.
“I had it slung over my shoulder like a little purse, and I was just jumping up and down and dancing,” Williams continued, “and I jumped off and the medal fell out. Everybody was dancing and I was walking around trying to pick it up off the ground. It’s dented now, but it’s definitely one of a kind.”
She believed the medal could have been produced better.
“I think we should have built something better, we should have built something more robust. You can’t really blame me on that, honestly,” Williams said.
“I don’t know if they’ll fix it. I’m waiting to hear from the IOC, the Olympic Committee. They said they’ll probably fix it. They had to prove that it was actually damaged, and now we’re just waiting to see. If they don’t fix it, I think it’d be a cool, interesting story, to be honest.”
This story seems to have a happy ending.
An IOC spokesperson told People magazine: that “[d]Damaged medals will be systematically replaced by the Paris Mint and stamped in the same way as the originals.”
