Team USA Soccer Player Reveals How She Broke Her Gold Medal

U.S. women’s soccer player Lynn Williams says she now owns “the world’s most expensive coaster.”

In a TikTok video posted on Thursday, the Olympian shared that her gold medal fell off its ribbon while she was celebrating Team USA’s fifth gold after defeating Brazil in the Paris Olympics earlier this month.

Williams explained that the bar on top of the medal holding the ribbon in place broke off while she was dancing. She said she had draped the ribbon over her shoulder “like a purse” and was jumping around before it broke.

“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.”

“It has a dent now, so it’s definitely one-of-a-kind,” the soccer player said.

“I just think they should’ve made these better,” she added. “They should have made them more sturdy. And honestly, I can’t be faulted for that.”

Williams said that she was waiting to hear back from the International Olympic Committee on potential next steps.

“I don’t know if I’m gonna get it fixed,” she said, adding, “If not, honestly I think it’s a cool, funny story.”

The soccer player clarified elsewhere that, although she was filmed swinging her medal around, that was not what caused it to break.

“I’m sure it didn’t help, but that’s not how it broke,” she said.

Williams had posted a slideshow of celebratory photos on Instagram the day after the U.S. women secured their fifth Olympic title on Aug. 10. One photo showed her holding up her medal, which was detached from the ribbon.

U.S. skateboarder Nyjah Huston has also questioned the quality of the Olympic medals , saying in an Instagram post earlier this month that his bronze medal from Paris looked “rough” after some wear.

“I don’t know, Olympic medals, maybe we gotta step up the quality a little bit,” he wrote, sharing pictures of the medal.

In response to Huston, a spokesperson for the Paris Olympics told HuffPost at the time that the “medals are the most coveted objects of the Games and the most precious for the athletes.”

“Damaged medals will be systematically replaced by Monnaie de Paris and engraved in an identical way to the originals,” the statement continued.