Life Imitates Art: Brazilian Swimmer Almost Perfectly Recreates The 'Bronze Medal' Meme

Brazilian swimmer Bruno Fratus, who won the bronze medal in 50-meter freestyle at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic games, celebrated his achievement so hard that he ended up recreating the popular Bronze Medal meme in real life.

Holding his hands up in triumph, pretending to bite down on the medal and kissing his wife, 32-year-old Fratus didn't hold back while celebrating his first Olympic medal. The broadcast did not go unnoticed by Twitter user @vinny_pereira, whom Fratus' celebration reminded of the famous comic-turned-meme by Russian artist 3palec.

Fratus é a personificação do meme do emocionado do pódio 🥉🇧🇷 pic.twitter.com/EfqwUwlf8s

— Vinícius (@vinni_pereira) August 1, 2021

The comic, in which an athlete pulls out all the stops while celebrating his bronze medal, first went viral in March 2020 as an object-labeling meme format. The only thing that Fratus didn't go for to recapture it perfectly is spraying champagne all over the Olympic stadium.

For Fratus, who finished fourth at the 2012 Summer London Olympics and sixth at the 2016 Summer Rio de Janeiro Olympics, the 2020 Tokyo bronze became his first Olympic medal, which will join his collection of three silver and a bronze medals in world championships and a number of gold and silvers in Pan American Games.