Federal Sports Minister Anika Wells has given what could only be described as a good-natured roasting to America over its Paris Olympics medal count at an Independence Day party hosted by the United States Embassy in Canberra on Wednesday night.
"I always like to say that sport makes Australians want to hug strangers. Sport seems to make the US count funny," the minister said, to - some - laughter.
The usual Fourth of July party was held over until after the Paris Olympics to celebrate the fact America and Australia will host the next two games: 2028 in Los Angeles and 2032 in Brisbane.
The theme of the night was about sport bringing people together - but Ms Wells was happy to playfully amp up the competitive spirit between the two nations.
She reminded the crowd that Australia's Ariane Titmus won gold to beat America's Queen of the Pool Katie Ledecky in the race of the meet, the 400m freestyle, at the start of the Paris Olympics.
"Australia won two gold that night. America won one, very good," Ms Wells told the crowd, tongue-in-cheek, at the National Arboretum Canberra.
"But of course, the United States doesn't believe in gold medals. The only country in the entire world who counts total medals first. Which I'm sure, I'm hypothesising, doesn't have anything to do with the fact the US usually sends along the biggest team to the Olympics."
(In the end, it was a moot point - the US ended with 40 gold medals - at the top of the official table with China, which also finished with 40 gold.)
Ms Well also congratulated the American women for winning 26 of their country's 40 gold medals while the Australian women won 13 of its 18 golds - "with about 10 per cent of your total population".
She also jokingly suggested embassy staff had fallen down by not getting the star of the Paris Olympics - American rapper Snoop Dogg - to the party in Canberra, given he now epitomised bringing people together through sport.
"Where is the Dog Father? Where is Snoop-zilla? Where is Snoop Doggy Dog? I expected better of you and I do think it's a missing piece of the puzzle here tonight and I think we should be honest about that because friends are honest with each other," she said.
The Sports Minister also gave some insight into the less glamorous side of the Paris Olympics, recalling to the crowd how she spent "six hours sitting in the rain at the opening ceremony waiting for them to set a balloon on fire".
As the vice-president of the Brisbane 2032 Organising Committee, Ms Wells said she also rose at 4am to take notes of the Paris closing ceremony. Like everyone watching, she was a bit befuddled - until America saved the day.
"As that piano suspended down and they played it upside down and then that golden-winged humanoid alien named the Golden Voyager that represented the spirit of Bastille descended and then there was a segment about a future dystopian world in which the Olympics had disappeared? I've got my clipboard, I'm making notes," she told the crowd.
"But then Tom Cruise abseiled from the roof. he jumped on a motorbike, he got in a fighter jet, he parachuted out of the fighter jet, he landed on the Hollywood sign and he unfurled the Olympics flag and I thought, 'God Bless America! This is bringing us together."
United States ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, who is in America, sent a video message for the night, congratulating Australia on a "spectacular Olympics".
"Swimming, cycling, canoeing, skateboarding, sailing and, of course, breaking," she said.
"The athletes were all amazing."
With only months likely left on her time in Australia as ambassador, Ms Kennedy also reflected on her time in the role.
"I am so grateful to President Biden for appointing me as ambassador to Australia. It's the best job in the world," she said in the message to the crowd.
"And that's because of all of you here tonight who make the alliance work day in and day out and the many wonderful people I've met all across Australia."
Ms Kennedy said Australians and Americans were working side by side on everything from defence to business to medicine.
"This has been a stand-out year for the alliance," she told the crowd.
"At last October's state visit to the White House, Prime Minister Albanese called it an 'alliance of hope' and I've seen that spirit every single day as we work together to make the world safer, more peaceful, stable and prosperous."
Congress, too, had "just certified Australia as our most trusted partner", cementing the relationship, she said.
Ms Kennedy said Australia and the US found strength "in our alliances and our partnerships".
"It's our superpower," she said.
As the party included everything from traditional Aboriginal dance to US Marines performing a flag ceremony, ambassador Kennedy reminded everyone why they were there.
"The fourth of July is a chance for Americans to re-commit to the promises of the Declaration of Independence - that all of us are created equal and that we have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," she said.
"The fundamental promise of democracy is what our two nations share. We are blessed that are parents and grandparents fought and died to pass it down to us. And now it's our turn together to make the world better than we found it."
