Olympian Lynn Williams Says She Broke Her Gold Medal While Partying in Paris
That’s a penalty.
Soccer star Lynn Williams may have gotten a little too excited after helping Team USA take home the gold medal at the Paris Olympics on Aug. 10.
Earlier this month, the 31-year-old ended up breaking her gold medal in the ensuing festivities, showing off the disconnected disc in an Aug. 11 Instagram post.
Now that she’s back home in the States, Lynn decided to fill fans in on what led to the unfortunate incident, sharing that it was the bar holding the ribbon connected to the medal that broke, leading to her to drop the prize and dent it.
“How did I get the world’s most expensive coaster?" the athlete teased in an Aug. 22 TikTok. “Obviously you saw me swinging the thing around. Ironically that’s not how it broke. I’m sure it didn’t help, but that’s not how it broke.”
But the team forward said that the actual break didn’t happen until later into the post-game celebrations.
“I had it on my shoulder like a little purse, and I was just jumping. And I jumped down and it just fell off,” she shared. “So everybody was dancing, and I was roaming around trying to get my medal off the ground. It has a dent now, so it’s definitely one-of-a-kind and the little bar got ripped.”
As for who’s to blame, Lynn joked that she’s not taking responsibility for the damage.
“I just think that they should a have made these better, they should have made them more sturdy,” she said of the medals, which contain a piece of the Eiffel Tower. “And honestly, I can’t be faulted for that.”
The Olympian added that she has reached out to the International Olympic Committee about getting the hardware replace, but noted, “I don’t know if I’m going to get it fixed. If not, honestly, I think it’s a cool, funny story.”
Look back at the Team USA medalists at the Paris Olympics.