Piers Morgan slammed for insisting Olympians shouldn't celebrate bronze medals

Piers Morgan has been slammed for stating on social media that Olympians shouldn't celebrate receiving a bronze medal.

The former Good Morning Britain host controversially stated that only gold medals deserve to be celebrated on Twitter on Monday, with him tweeting, "Real sporting champions don't celebrate coming 3rd."

His comment caught the attention of Olympic athletes, including former professional boxer and three-time Olympian Paddy Barnes, who replied, "Piers, ill fight you for my Bronze medals," while bronze Olympic medal-winning boxer Tony Jeffries commented, "What you got in your trophy cabinet champ? @piersmorgan," alongside a picture of the presenter on a sun lounger.

Former British heptathlete Kelly Sotherton, who has three bronze medals, also weighed in to dispute Piers' claim that he was "100% behind the British athletes in Tokyo".

"But then don't celebrate anything other than gold ... ok piers fully behind @TeamGB," she responded.

The controversial TV personality then replied by apologising and calling her a "serial bronzer", to which she tweeted, "Don't be sorry.... I'm not. I'm very honoured that you have spent the time to find out I've won bronze medals. That's a win..."

Clarifying his remarks, Piers later tweeted, "I don't think Silver and Bronze medals are shameful, but no real champion would ever feel comfortable having one in their trophy cabinet."

At this point, former footballer Gary Lineker got involved, by writing, "I suspect if you'd ever won a medal, of any description, in sport, you might feel differently."

Pointless star Richard Osman replied to Gary's message by joking that Piers' show Good Morning Britain always placed silver in the breakfast TV ratings.

However, Piers remained defiant amid the backlash as he wrote, "Getting a lot of Silver and Bronze medal-winning Olympians berating me for saying only Gold matters. But no Gold medal-winners. Funny that!"