President Barack Obama and McKayla Maroney are not impressed
McKayla Maroney is not impressed–and neither is President Barack Obama.
Gymnast McKayla Maroney (who won a gold medal with her team at the Summer Olympics but famously scowled when she had to settle for silver in the vault – an event in which she was heavily favored) visited Obama in the White House–and they both paid tribute the face Maroney put on that launched an internet meme. The White House tweeted the photo today.
Barack Obama and McKayla Maroney.
A photo of Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney and President Obama doing her now-famous “McKayla Maroney is not impressed” face went viral Saturday after the White House posted it on Twitter.
Even McKayla Maroney was impressed.
A photo of the Olympic gold medalist and President Barack Obama doing her now-famous “McKayla Maroney is not impressed” face went viral Saturday after the White House posted it on Twitter. The two took the picture Thursday when Maroney and U.S. Fierce Five teammates visited the White House.
“He was the one who brought it up” – Maroney said. “We were about to leave and he said: ‘I want to talk to you one second about the face.’ He said, ‘I pretty much do that face at least once a day.’ ”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFKEx-lTr5M
This is an official White House photo of Barack Obama, McKayla Maroney and the Not Impressed face.
It is, in this writer’s opinion, the most important thing on the Internet.
The White House’s Pete Souza tweeted the photo this morning with the following caption:
“President Barack Obama jokingly mimics U.S. Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney’s “not impressed” look while greeting members of the 2012 U.S. Olympic gymnastics teams in the Oval Office, Nov. 15, 2012. Steve Penny, USA Gymnastics President, and Savannah Vinsant laugh at left.”
On Wednesday, our own Molly Geary (@theoryofgeary)caught up with Maroney and talked about “the face”:
” “No Olympic champion has a face made about them, so it’s kind of cool, right?” she said Wednesday at an autograph session for fans. She was in town for the Kellogg’s Tour of Gymnastics Champions, which stops at the Verizon Center on Thursday night.
The 16-year-old took home an Olympic gold medal in the team competition and silver in vault, but it was an image of her with a less-than-enthused face on the medal stand in London that stuck with the audience the most.
“I don’t think you can tell somebody, even before, ‘OK, I’m ready for this!’” Maroney said of the social media sensation that followed after she made the facial expression with all of the world watching.
“The whole world pretty much got obsessed with it,” she continued. “Every single day I get asked by people to do ‘the face,’ so I’m bringing it along with me now for the rest of my life.” “