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bob the cap catcher olympics
bob the cap catcher olympics
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Culture > Digital

Bob The Cap Catcher Deserves A Gold Medal For Inspiring All These Olympics Memes

Julia Dwyer

The time has finally come again, and the Paris 2024 Olympics are now in full swing. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been obsessed! Between the mysterious torch bearer at the Opening Ceremony to Simone Biles’ show-stopping qualifying performances, it’s been a riveting start. But there has been one moment that really caught audiences’ attention in the early days of the Games that no one was expecting.

In case you missed it, on Sunday, July 28, during the women’s 100-meter breaststroke preliminary, Team USA’s Emma Weber lost her swim cap in the pool, and it was saved by an unlikely hero. After her cap fell off, a man wearing a floral and very colorful little swimsuit dove into the pool and grabbed the cap, and then got back on the deck with his fist in the air, presenting the retrieved cap to a crowd of cheering fans. One of the NBC announcers Amy Van Dyken deemed him “Bob The Cap Catcher,” and as soon as this moment happened, Bob became the new hero of the Paris Olympics — cementing the fact once and for all not all heroes wear capes. 

Bob has pretty much become an overnight sensation — thanks in large part to all the memes of him. It’s already a good era on Twitter right now, with Vice President Kamala Harris being the meme queen and Brat summer taking over everything — so this is really the cherry on top. Bob has amassed some hilarious memes, and it would be a crime not to share them with the world. 

It’s safe to say the internet really loves Bob. One can only hope that someone else will lose something in this pool so that fans may be able to see Bob again soon. Still, at this rate, Bob (and all the Bob The Cap Catcher memes) will go down in Olympic history. Who needs a gold medal when you have that claim to fame?

Julia Dwyer

Toronto MU '25

Julia is a National Writer for Her Campus and a chapter member at Her Campus TMU. She has lived in Toronto her whole life. She is passionate about women and the things they create, book adaptations, and really good stories with flawed, loveable characters. When she's not procrastinating, studying, or buying expensive coffee on campus, you can find her rewatching Pride and Prejudice, reading everything that Emily Henry publishes, and wishing she could be eating apple pie.