‘It’s Bullsh*t’: US Olympic Swimmer Upset that Americans Don’t Celebrate Silver, Bronze Medals

Team USA is locked in a tight race with China and Japan for the lead in gold medals at the Olympics. However, according to one U.S. Olympian, Americans should be celebrating Silver and Bronze.

Lilly King is bringing home silver after finishing second in the women’s 200m breaststroke on Friday. In addition, she also took bronze in the women’s 100m breaststroke. After those two strong performances, King had choice words for those who look at Team USA’s second and third-place finishes as disappointments.

“Excuse my French, but the fact that we’re not celebrating silver and bronze is bull****,” King said.

Two Americans on the podium in the women's 100m breaststroke! Lilly King earns bronze for Team USA! #TokyoOlympics pic.twitter.com/zZd0qRCKeD

— #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) July 27, 2021

“What is that about?” she asked. “You get to bring a medal home for your country, and just because we compete for the United States and maybe we have extremely high standards for this sort of thing, that doesn’t excuse the fact that we haven’t been celebrating silver and bronze as much as gold.”

King continued, “I might be more happy with this medal than I’ve been with any of my previous medals, including the two golds in Rio. We really should be celebrating those silver and bronzes because those are some of the greatest moments of that athlete’s career, and why would we not celebrate that?”

Of course, Americans expect more from their athletes because the country has – at least until this point – tended to excel or at least attempt to excel in everything we attempt. However, as it pertains to the Olympics, the United States is known for having most of the most talented athletes in the world and investing huge amounts of money in its Olympic training program.

So, naturally, the expectations are high.

That doesn’t mean, however, that people look at silver medals as failures. In fact, while Lilly King has never taken a knee, most Americans would probably prefer a player who wins bronze and respectfully stands for the anthem instead of someone who won gold and took a knee.