Forget the medals, a particularly Australian controversy has been bubbling along behind the scenes at the Olympic Games.
Some random American questioned on social media why Australia was so good at swimming, and oh boy, was he not ready for the response.
Apart from the usual flag waving, one explanation that came up was that we were ‘girt by sea’ and then things really took off trying to explain ‘girt’.
Girt was ‘a mindset’, diagrams were made, the Australian national anthem was dragged into it.
“Australia is so girt by sea that we misplaced one of our Prime Ministers in it. True story,” one fan wrote.
But perhaps swimming sensation Cate Campbell last year summed it up best as the “least sexy word in the English language”.
“But if you want to have a go at Advance Australia Fair, I kind of don’t mind because we have one of the least sexy words in the English language in it, girt?” she said before the games.
“Girt, it probably only comes behind moist and secrete. Go for your life (Americans). But you know what I’m a proud Australian and I will sing that anthem proudly for the rest of my life.”
What do you think, does girt deserve its reputation
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