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Kate Hansen Blesses Teammate's Medal with Ceremonial Twerking
February 13, 2014
What good is an Olympic medal if it hasn’t been christened with booty-shaking?
This was the logic behind Erin Hamlin’s decision to hand her bronze medal over to teammate Kate Hansen on Wednesday. Hamlin won the United States' first individual luge medal in Winter Olympic history on Tuesday and, shortly thereafter, presented the medal to Hansen for a ritualistic "dance-blessing."
Hamlin recorded Hansen’s ceremony and uploaded it to Instagram, where Mike Foss of For The Win spotted it.
It included dipping, shimmying and a dash of twerking—just for good measure.
Hamlin captioned the video, “Had to get my medal ‘dance-blessed’ by the one and only @k8ertotz #bustaBRONZEmove #Sochi2014.”
Those who have been following the Sochi Games likely saw Hansen breaking out her moves earlier this week. Prior to competition,the 21-year-old Californian popped, locked and grooved to the tunes pumping in her headphones.
Some experts weren’t pleased with Hansen’s dance moves/warm-up routine. According to Timothy Burke of Deadspin, NBC commentator Duncan Kennedy called out the young Olympian for not preparing with traditional stretches like the rest of her competitors:
I would like to see something a little more sport-specific from her. What you see out of the top runners—the really heavy hitters—is they’re working those start muscles. They’re working the low back, they're working the arms and the shoulders and getting the power out of them because the start has to be a powerful, explosive movement. ... I’m not sure [dancing] gets the job done for medal contention.
Hansen ended up coming in 10th, but she doesn’t appear to be letting it hamper her Olympic experience.
Be on the lookout for more Hansen twerking. These games aren’t over, and as long as there are Olympic medals to be blessed, there will be twerking.
We can only pray Bob Costas makes some sort of Herculean comeback and ends up dance-blessing a medal with Hansen on air. Just imagine Costas twisted on vodka and antibiotics, trying desperately to replicate this young woman’s body roll as “Don’t Drop That Thun Thun” plays.
They’d have to call off the rest of the events after that, as the remaining gold medals would all be awarded to Bob.
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