French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati speaks out after his bulge cost him an Olympic medal: ‘Big disappointment’
Anthony Ammirati was left disappointed after his “big” bulge cost him an Olympic medal.
The French pole vaulter went viral over the weekend after he failed to clear the bar because his manhood got in the way — eliminating him from competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“It’s a big disappointment,” Ammirati told the French Athletics Federation.
The 21-year-old seemingly made it over his 5.70m target when his package hit the crossbar on his way down, sending the bar to the floor with him.
“I’m a bit gutted because I didn’t miss anything on the third attempt at 5.70m,” he continued. “What I did miss was a bit of jumping in training to fine-tune the settings. Just a technical session.”
Ammirati, who dealt with injuries leading up to the qualifying track and field event, felt “100 percent physically” before the attempt but “was missing a bit of pole vault.”
“The conditions were good. It’s the first time I’ve started a competition without any stress,” he explained. “As I was a total outsider, I only had one goal: to interact with the audience. I was almost there.”
Although Ammirati explained where he went wrong, he did not mention the elephant in the room — and neither did commentators after the moment was broadcast live to millions of viewers.
The commentators were noticeably quiet as they watched the incident back in slow motion.
After the awkward pause, one of the correspondents asked another anchor to explain what went wrong.
“[The issue] was on the way down,” they simply replied.
Social media users were also left shocked by the incident, with many X users making jokes about Ammirati’s “BDE.”
“When you’re about to win an Olympic medal but your massive d—k gets in the way while the whole world watches in slow motion,” one user wrote.
“oh he brought that baguette to the games,” another fan cheekily commented, as a third joked, “He’s going to stroll out of this Olympics with more ladies’ phone numbers than medals!”
The mistake cost Ammirati a potential Olympic medal as he did not move on to Monday’s men’s pole vault final. He officially finished in 12th place.
The outcome was very unexpected as Ammirati won gold at the World Athletics U20 Championships in 2022.
