President Joe Biden has hailed Team USA for bringing a bit of unity to a pandemic weary nation as he hosted a White House celebration with about 600 athletes from this year's Winter Olympics in Beijing and the coronavirus-delayed Summer Games held in 2021 in Tokyo.
Among the athletes at the South Lawn ceremony on Wednesday were swimmer and seven-time gold medalist Katie Ledecky, celebrated bobsledder Elena Meyers Taylor and ice dancer Zachary Donohue, as well as competitors from the past two Paralympic Games.
Biden noted the Team USA athletes won some 260 medals in Beijing and Tokyo. Equally impressive as their performances, Biden suggested, was the athletes' ability to unite Americans during a period marked by the unrelenting coronavirus pandemic and deepening partisanship after the 2020 election.
"You represent the very soul of America," Biden told the athletes.
"It's been a very divided nation ... But you brought us together. No matter the divisions, when we see you compete, we feel a common pride in those three letters: USA."
The Tokyo Games were delayed one year due to COVID-19 and took place last summer, largely without spectators. First lady Jill Biden led the US delegation to Japan. The US staged a diplomatic boycott due to China's human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.