US women’s soccer forward Lynn Williams lamented how her Olympics gold medal has turned into the “world’s most expensive coaster.”
In a video posted to TikTok this week, Williams, who plays for NJ/NY Gotham FC in the NWSL, provided a play-by-play of how she broke her medal.
“Thought it was finally time to tell you the long-awaited question … how did I break my medal? How did I get the world’s most expensive coaster?” Williams asked.
She explained there was a bar on the medal that held the ribbon on it, and recalled the moment after winning it in which she was swinging the medal around in celebration.
“Ironically, that’s not how it broke … I’m sure it didn’t help, but that’s not how it broke,” Williams said, before divulging the true cause for the break.
“I had it on my shoulder like a little purse, and I was just jumping, dancing, jumping,” Williams continued. “And I jumped down, and it just fell off. 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.”
She was of the belief that the medals could’ve been manufactured better.
“I just think they should’ve made these better, they should’ve made them more sturdy, and honestly I can’t be faulted for that,” Williams said.
“I don’t know if I’m going to get it fixed. We are waiting to hear from the IOC, the Olympic Committee. They said I could probably get one. I had to prove to them that it was, in fact, damaged, but now we’re just waiting to see. If not, honestly, I think it’s a cool, funny story.”
The story appears as though it will have a happy ending.
An IOC spokesperson told People that “[d]amaged medals will be systematically replaced by Monnaie de Paris and engraved in an identical way to the originals.”