U.S. President Joe Biden welcomed Olympians and Paralympians from the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games and the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing to the White House on Wednesday (May 4), saying they were an inspiration to the country as a whole.
Speaking outside the White House, Biden said the athletes brought a “divided nation” together through sport.
“We’ve been a very divided nation philosophically of late. But you brought us together. For no matter the divisions, when we see you compete, we feel a common pride in those three letters, ‘U-S-A’,” the president said.
U.S. bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor thanked Biden for welcoming the athletes noting they had been through a lot including the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics due to COVID-19, but that she hoped they had “made the country proud.”
The athletes presented Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and First Gentleman Doug Emhoff with special Team USA swag at the end of the event.
(Production: Kurt Michael Hall)