Social media will find everything.
Gwen Berry, the Olympian hammer thrower who came under the spotlight over the weekend for turning her back while the national anthem sounded, went viral yet again this week.
An old photo of Gwen Berry is going viral showing her proudly holding the American flag as she kept her dream to represent the U.S. at the 2016 Rio Olympics alive. The blog post on Berry’s old personal website is dated June 12, 2015.
The photo made the rounds on social media with some questioning what changed over the last six years.
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Berry finished in third place at the trials and will be headed to Tokyo for the coronavirus-delayed Olympic Games.
“I never said that I didn’t want to go to the Olympic Games, that’s why I competed and got third and made the team,” Berry said.
“I never said that I hated the country. I never said that. All I said was I respect my people enough to not stand for or acknowledge something that disrespects them. I love my people. Point blank, period.”
Berry said: “If you know your history, you know the full song of the national anthem, the third paragraph speaks to slaves in America, our blood being slain…all over the floor. It’s disrespectful and it does not speak for Black Americans. It’s obvious. There’s no question.”
