A French pole vaulter has become the most talked-about athlete on social media during the Paris Olympics, following an unexpected and NSFW accident during a qualifying event.
On August 5, aiming to secure a spot in the men’s pole vault final, France’s Anthony Ammirati competed in the men’s qualifying event on August 3.
A viral video shared on social media shows Ammirati initially clearing his jump. However, his waist hit the crossbar, causing him to fall to the ground.
The 21-year-old Olympian did not make it into the top 12 athletes qualifying for the men’s pole vault final, while Sweden’s Armand “Mondo” Duplantis is set to defend his Olympic title with another gold medal, according to the Olympics.
Ammirati expressed his disappointment to the French Athletics Federation, calling his loss “a big disappointment.”
He later remarked, “Although I was in peak physical condition, I didn’t perform as well as I’d hoped in the pole vault.”. The conditions were good. It was the first time I started a competition without any stress. Since I was an underdog, I had only one goal: to compete with the others. I almost made it.”
However, the online audience reacted differently to this mistake, with one user on social media site X calling it “the weirdest way to lose an Olympic pole vault competition.”
Another user on CR wrote, “Anthony Ammirati failed at the bar, and the commentators are clearly struggling to acknowledge what happened. Help, I’m dying.”
Despite the hilarious reactions online, Ammirati’s waist might not be to blame.
What exactly happened during the men’s pole vault qualifying event?
While some headlines claimed Ammirati’s waist ended his Olympic dream, pole vaulting coach Branko Miric said that another part of his body hit the crossbar first.
“He definitely hit the bar with his feet first, and he was going to miss that attempt anyway,” Miric, founder of Apex Vaulting, told TODAY.com.
This wasn’t Ammirati’s only attempt to qualify for the men’s pole vault final.
“You have three attempts to clear a bar, and if you do, you get three more attempts at the next bar, which is raised,” Miric explained. “He just missed.”
Ammirati successfully cleared jumps of 5.40 meters and 5.60 meters but faltered on his third attempt at clearing 5.70 meters. He needed to clear 5.80 meters to advance to the final.
Miric noted that it’s a “very common occurrence” for an athlete to not achieve enough depth to clear the crossbar, which was the case with Ammirati’s viral miss.
“When you’re pole vaulting, you need not only height but also depth,” he said. “To clear the bar, you need to dig deep and reach new heights. It’s very common in vaulting to see people who look like they’re at the right height, but they don’t have enough depth, and they fall onto the bar and knock it down.”
NBC Olympics reported that Ammirati ultimately tied for 15th place alongside Belgium’s Ben Broeders, Norway’s Sondre Guttormsen, and Poland’s Piotr Lisek and Robert Sobera.
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