For better and for worse, the 2024 Paris Olympics have produced a number of newsworthy moments.
Whether it be the strange, aberrant, and outright degenerate opening ceremonies, or the fascination viewers developed with Turkish silver medalist sharpshooter Yusuf Dikec, Paris won’t be easily forgotten.
Saturday gave audiences another memory, but it wasn’t for a performance from an athlete, as much as it was her voice.
That evening, twenty-four-year-old Femke Bol took the Netherlands to victory in securing a gold medal while running the final leg of the 4x400m relay. It was a tremendous moment for Bol as she pushed ahead to best Team USA.
Femke Bol is UNREAL. 😲
She takes GOLD for the Netherlands in the mixed 4x400m relay with a STELLAR 47.93s anchor leg. #ParisOlympics
📺: NBC, USA Network & Peacock pic.twitter.com/44cnSwomUt
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 3, 2024
As she received a sharp rise in popularity for her impressive display of athleticism, clips began resurfacing of interviews post-race where Bol sounds just like a rather well-known Disney character.
Outkick reports the following clip is from the World Indoor Championships in March 2024, where many heard the voice of Mickey Mouse when Bol spoke.
Femke “Mickey Mouse Voice” Bol has broken the national 400m indoor record. pic.twitter.com/c9RgyY8MNo
— Funny Bebo (@myfunnybebo) March 3, 2024
Have you seen this?
In another clip from the 2023 Oslo Diamond League where Bol set a new record, she sounded very much the same.
🗣️ “It’s a sprint, and you have to give it your all…you need to dig super deep in a race to get a good time ”
Femke Bol digs deep to run 52.30 in the 400m hurdles – a new meet record and WORLD LEAD 🚀
FULL INTERVIEW ⤵️https://t.co/OVWJSD71CT pic.twitter.com/0TfWLvjaC7
— CITIUS MAG (@CitiusMag) June 15, 2023
This may be a result of running as Vocal Cord Dysfunction can lead to issues when breathing.
Runner’s World describes VCD as, “when the tiny muscles in the larynx (voice box), which open and close naturally, remain closed when you’re inhaling, resulting in an inability to get air in and out of the lungs effectively.”
Whatever the cause, it didn’t stop audiences from finding great amusement in the situation.
One X user took the opportunity to make an allusion to controversial Olympic boxer Algerian Imane Khelif.
Khelif made headlines for boxing in the Paris Olympics women’s division despite failing a gender test in with the International Boxing Association in 2023 and possessing XY chromosomes.
The user said, “Well, she Definitely doesn’t have male hormones or genetics!”
Well, she Definitely doesn’t have male hormones or genetics!
— Randy Skolrud (@RSkolrud) August 5, 2024
Outkick found the following interview with Bol where it’s obvious her high-pitched voice is not the norm, but a cause of rigors of competition.
Admittedly, it is a pretty amusing set of circumstances and hard not to laugh over.
Hopefully Bol can laugh as well and appreciate fans interest in her after Saturday.
Her performance is the real story here as her victory is an amazing display of talent and effort many of us could only dream of achieving.
That being said, with all the nonsense stemming from the opening ceremonies, it’s nice to have an innocent chuckle.
