Pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati has spoken after going viral with his rather unfortunate Olympic shortcomings.
The Frenchman was not able to place among the medals after missing his 5.70m at the third attempt. Though, it looked as though he would have made it had it not been for his manhood.
In a moment that went viral, Ammirati’s bulge – for lack of a better word – caught the bar on the way down and caused it to roll off, ensuring a failed attempt.
The 21-year-old didn’t appear to be in much pain physically speaking, but the unfortunate incident will certainly have hurt emotionally, given it meant the difference between progressing and dropping out of the competition.
Ammirati was asked about the incident, but he could only respond to the disappointment rather than any comedic factor.
“It’s a big disappointment,” Ammirati told the French Athletics Federation.
“I’m a bit gutted because I didn’t miss anything on the third attempt at 5.70m. What I did miss was a bit of jumping in training to fine-tune the settings. Just a technical session.”
He added: “I was 100 percent physically, but I was missing a bit of pole vault. The conditions were good. It’s the first time I’ve started a competition without any stress. As I was a total outsider, I only had one goal: to interact with the audience. I was almost there.”
Ammirati’s costly miss
The miss meant Ammirati ended up finishing 12th with a height of 5.60 in Group A. He had completed his previous two jumps at the first attempt.
Although, Ammirati wasn’t the biggest surprise, with fellow Frenchman Thibault Collet failing to win a medal despite becoming the first Frenchman to clear 5.95m as recently as June. Collet could only clear 5.75m at his home Olympic Games, resulting in an 11th-place finish.