Tennis
The US flag fell to the ground to the Russian national anthem. Foreigners laughed and applauded
Photo: © JARAMA / Gettyimages.com
America’s amazing embarrassment during the award ceremony.
Now you can hear the Russian anthem at international competitions in exceptional cases. But not so long ago, our anthem played even during the awarding of American champions!
And once, to the music of Alexandrov, the American flag simply fell off the flagpole and fell to the ground.
The entire arena laughed at the embarrassment of America!
America’s landmark victory
A funny incident occurred after the duel between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova in the final of the tennis tournament at the London Olympics. By that time, Serena already had two Olympic golds, but the American won both awards in pair competitions – the famous athlete did not submit to the individual tournament. This time, the tennis player made a breakthrough and got to the decisive match, where she was considered a favorite.
Russia dreamed that Sharapova could repeat the feat of eight years ago when she beat Serena in the Wimbledon final and broke into the elite of women’s tennis. However, contrary to the hopes of the Russian audience, Sharapova failed to provide proper resistance to the American at the Olympics. Williams, who was then at the peak of her career, literally crushed her opponent in two sets, allowing her to take just one game: 6:0, 6:1. The Russian finished the tournament with a silver medal, the first and last Olympic prize in her rich collection.
“Could not stand a strong country”
The confrontation between Russia and the United States unexpectedly continued at the awards ceremony – at least symbolically. Before the direct presentation of the prizes, a traditional flag-raising ritual took place, and while the banners of Russia, the United States of America and Belarus soared into the air (Victoria Azarenka won a bronze medal), the US anthem was played in the arena.
The incident happened on the last notes of the work. The American flag was literally torn off the rack, after which it slowly began to fall onto the lawn. The fans reacted to the incident instantly, starting to laugh and applaud, but the main thing was ahead of them. As soon as the star-striped banner began to fall, the Russian anthem played in the background. Under the video on YouTube, commentators competed with each other in witticisms:
– I could not stand a strong country!
– Russia has won!
– In the company of Russia and Belarus, the American flag became uncomfortable.
It is curious that the curiosity did not stop the organizers. The Russian anthem played to the end to a storm of applause from the stands, and many British people later gloated over their colleagues from the States on social networks:
— As a true Brit, I can’t help but smirk at the fact that the orchestra continued to play.
Did you notice that no one even raised the flag of America?
Source: Sportbox
I am a sports journalist who has written for a number of Sportish. I have a background in journalism and have been writing since I was young. My main focus is sports news, but I also write about general news. I am currently working as an author at Sportish.