What Is The 'Bronze Medal' Meme? The Origin Of The 'Third Place Celebration' Comic Depicting A Man Celebrating On A Podium Explained

Team USA’s "pommel horse specialist" Stephen Nedoroscik helped his team secure the United States' first men's gymnastics medal in 16 years during the 2024 Summer Paris Olympics. The team is bringing the bronze medal home, which is being celebrated by many online with the same energy as if they had won gold.

The audience enthusiasm over the U.S. men's gymnastics victory resembles the classic "Bronze Medal" multi-panel webcomic by Russian artist 3palec that first went viral in February 2020, which shows a man in a tracksuit receiving a third place medal while he celebrates extravagantly.

Let's uncover the story behind the Third Place Celebration meme and how a Brazilian Olympic swimmer accidentally recreated the multi-panel comic in real life at the 2020 Summer Tokyo Olympics.

Where Is The 'Bronze Medal' Meme From?

Originally titled "Never Give Up," Russian artist 3palec originally drew this illustration in February 2020, which shows a man winning a bronze medal and excitedly celebrating his victory by biting his medal, kissing the woman doling out awards, popping a large champagne bottle and then chugging it while standing on the podium next to the first and second-place winners who are far more reserved.

How Did The 'Bronze Medal' Meme Went Viral?

It didn't take long for the Bronze Medal comic to be memed online, as the expressive and well-structured panels enabled netizens to edit several other versions replacing the man with notable characters or celebrities. The primary format of using the meme is through object-labeling edits in which meme creators apply text or imagery to the subjects of the comic to create jokes.

Redditors were the ones that most enjoyed creating parodies with the Third Place Celebration illustration, as Redditor /u/Godzilla_original posted in February 2020 to the /r/HistoryMemes sub depicting the bronze winner as Christopher Columbus reaching America.

X / Twitter users also quickly picked up the illustration to create memes, as it could be seen being tweeted or used in replies to various posts. One such example is seen in a reply from Twitter user Himanshoes in April 2020.

How Did A Brazilian Olympic Swimmer Accidentally Recreate The 'Bronze Medal' Meme?

Bruno Fratus guaranteed Brazil the bronze medal in the 50m freestyle at the 2020 Summer Tokyo Olympics. The swimmer celebrated the achievement in a very euphoric way, biting his medal, kissing his wife/coach and holding his arms up in triumph.

Shortly after, X user @vinni_pereira noticed how Fratus' celebration was very similar to the "Bronze Medal" illustration and decided to use five photographs of the swimmer to prove his point.

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For the full history of the "Bronze Medal" meme, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.