President Joe Biden hosted more than 400 U.S. Olympians and Paralympians from the Paris Games at the White House on Monday.
“Because I’m president, and I cause commotion when I go places, they wouldn’t let me go to the Olympics,” Biden said in an address on the South Lawn. “My staff would have their TVs on watching you as I was trying to get briefed on national security. But in fairness, I had the TV on in the Oval Office as well. We felt so much pride.”
The U.S. won the most medals at the Olympics (126) for an eighth consecutive Summer Games. The U.S. placed third in total medals at the Paris Paralympics with 105.
Biden called the U.S. the “greatest sports nation in the history of the world” and said the Olympians and Paralympians represented “the very best of America.”
“This is not my house. This is your house ... Team USA’s house,” he told the athletes.
In his closing remarks, Biden joked that since he won’t be president anymore come the 2028 Los Angeles Games, “they can’t stop me from going there then.”
Olympic swimming gold medalist Torri Huske, Huske’s parents, 2028 Paralympic hopeful wheelchair basketball player Adrina Castro and Paralympic wheelchair basketball gold medalist Paul Schulte each spoke before Biden gave his address.
“There’s a reason that we’re known as the best country in the world, and we not only have the medal count to back that up, but each of us has a story of how we fought to get here,” Huske said. “As amazing as this is, the Olympics and Paralympics are so much more than each of our individual accomplishments. Everyone talks about how the Olympics and Paralympics foster peace and international solidarity, and it’s true. They unite countries in the spirit of competition. They also inspire others, and that is what each of us did this summer. With each competition, we represented not only the flag and its people, but we upheld the legacy that is the United States.”