When I was a youngster in the spring of 1999, my family took a trip to Disney World and all I wanted was a Mickey Mouse safari hat. I begged and pleaded, and finally, my parents acquiesced to my demands.
About 10 seconds after arriving home after that trip, I ran into the house, my Mickey Mouse safari hat fell off my head, and I stepped on it, sending shards of dried straw scattering across the family room floor.
I was devastated (not going to lie, I kind of still am a quarter-century later).
I bring this up because I think I can relate to how US Women’s National Team soccer player Lynn Williams feels after breaking her Olympic gold medal just two weeks after receiving it.
Yes, I did just compare a $22 safari hat with plastic mouse ears to an Olympic gold medal…
Williams decided to weave a yard about how she turned her medal into an “expensive coaster” while cooking up some soup.
Williams said that at the Nike Celebration Party after the team’s win, she was wearing her medal over her shoulder like a purse. I’ve never won an Olympic medal but I’m fairly certain that they aren’t supposed to be worn that way.
“And I was just jumping — dancing, jumping — and I jumped down, and it just fell off,” she said. “So everybody was dancing, and I was roaming around trying to get my medal off the ground.”
According to NBC News, Williams and the team submitted proof of the damage to the IOC in hopes of getting the medal fixed or replaced.
“But I just think that they should have made these better,” Williams joked. “They should have made them more sturdy, and honestly, I can’t be faulted for that.”
She may have a point, there have been stories about these Paris medals not holding up.
You’ve got to be careful with things like that, especially if they’re not yours. I once had the chance to wear one of Philadelphia Flyers legend Bob “The Hound” Kelly’s Stanley Cup rings and I remember my hand trembling a bit, not because I was in awe of wearing something so incredible, it was because I was terrified at the thought of being the klutz who dropped a Flyers Stanley Cup ring.
Hopefully, Williams gets her medal fixed, but high marks to her for having a great sense of humor about it.