Memes of Michael Phelps cluttered social media feeds Monday night as people laughed about his death stare in the “ready room.”
With all eyes on everything Olympics-related, very little slips under the social media radar. Here are a few things spotted this week:
Reaction face
It wasn’t one of Michael Phelps’ finer facial moments when he was caught on camera looking displeased ahead of the 200m butterfly semifinal. It didn’t take long for the Internet to spot Phelps’ “not impressed” face and soon enough the hashtag #PhelpsFace started doing the rounds. It was shared more than 35,000 times as of Tuesday morning. But hey, maybe he was “thinking about gold medals.”
Nervous parents
Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman’s parents were the opposite of cool, calm and collected as they watched their daughter perform an intricate uneven bars routine. Their wincing, leaning and recoiling struck a chord with stressed-out parents everywhere who watch and hope for the best every time their child performs. News outlets had a field day with this clip.
And here are Raisman’s parents, looking much more relaxed.
Olympic surprise
UK swimmer Dan Goodfellow won an Olympic bronze medal alongside teammate Tom Daley in the 10m synchronized platform dive, so it came as a surprise to his mom when it appeared that her medal-winning son was cropped out of the picture in some British newspapers. Many took to Twitter to show their support for Goodfellow’s mom and also to question the phrase “synchronized partner” being used instead of Goodfellow’s full name.
Gender specifics
Commentators also took to social media to call out female athletes’ achievements being overshadowed by their husbands and discussed along gender-specific lines. A tweet by the Chicago Tribune about Corey Cogdell-Unrein winning a bronze medal in women’s trap shooting was retweeted over 1,500 times for that reason.
The Chicago Tribune later acknowledged that the three times US Olympian was “awesome on her own.”
Some reversed the slight in reference to Michael Phelps winning another gold.
Oh Internet, you slay us.
