Polish Olympian Ewa Swoboda had social media confused with her actions before the women's 100-meter race in Paris.
As the 27-year-old was getting ready for the race, cameras spotted her crouched and preparing for the task at hand. Seeing the camera on her, Swoboda saluted those watching at home with her right hand. Almost immediately after her salute, Swoboda corrected herself.
Shaking her head and wagging her right index finger, Swoboda tilted her head to the left and then gave a salute with her left hand instead. Many fans on social media were perplexed by the Polish star's actions and many on X attempted to discern why Swoboda quickly changed her tune and gave a different salute.
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"At first I didn't understand and at the end I didn't either," one commenter wrote on X. "What happened there?" After the post went viral, many shared what they believed Swoboda was trying to do, explaining how the gesture was meant for the military.
"Military salute is with the right hand," a fan said. "So, she switches to her left to say hello." Another commenter agreed with the original explanation, showcasing how Swoboda accidentally saluted the military instead of saluting and waving hello to the fans watching the event.
That said, while Swoboda made waves on the internet before the 100-meter race, she wasn't able to turn that attention into a win. In the final heat, things looked promising for the Pole, finishing with the fastest time at 10.99.
However, Swoboda did not make the final, with the eight-time Polish champion coming in fourth behind Melissa Jefferson, Marie-Josee Ta Lou and Mujinga Kambundji in the semifinals.
In the final, American star Sha'Carri Richardson was the presumptive favorite to win the race outright, even as rain fell on the track. However, instead of Richardson building on her 100m World Championship win earlier in the year, the 23-year-old was upset by Julien Alfred.
Alfred, a St. Lucia native, blew away Richardson in the final , finishing with a time of 10.71 seconds to easily nab the gold, despite the downpour. Richardson, on the other hand, won her first Olympic medal, a silver, with a time of 10.87 seconds as Jefferson rounded out the podium.
The 23-year-old Alfred won the small Caribbean nation's first medal. What made the accomplishment more impressive was that Alfred was representing a nation with fewer than 200,000 inhabitants - 178,000 people, to be exact.
After the race, an emotional Alfred sought out Richardson and the two shared an embrace as the two celebrated their accomplishments. Known as the fastest woman on Earth leading up to the Paris Olympics, Richardson's shock loss certainly put a damper on the sky-high expectations placed on the American star.
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