Jenna Lemoncelli
French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati appeared to make light of going viral for the wrong reason at the Paris Olympics.
The 21-year-old athlete joked about how his manhood clipped the crossbar during his semifinal heat Saturday in a video that has since made its way around social media.
“POV: you create more buzz for your package than for your performances,” a message in French, as translated by Google, read over a video of Ammirati eating in what appeared to be a cafeteria in the Olympic Village.
It’s unclear when exactly the video was posted, and where it originally came from.
Ammirati does not appear to have a TikTok account, and the video is not on his Instagram.
Anthony Ammirati ♥️🤩 #humour #joparis2024 #pourtoi
♬ son original – C_la_vie_en_couleurs
The Frenchman has been at the center of jokes on social media about his bulge, while still in his uniform, getting in the way of his Olympic dream.
Anthony Ammirati failed the bar and the commentators are clearly having a hard time acknowledging what happened 😂 HELP I’M DYING pic.twitter.com/5hOHttVA5g
— Gladys Wotching (@Glodyswotcher) August 3, 2024
Ammirati missed his 5.70m target on his third attempt, after clearing the two previous heights in his only event at the Paris Games.
His knee hit the bar on another attempt at 5.70.
After four attempts, Ammirati finished 12th with a combined score of 5.60.
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“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.”
Ammirati, who did not address the situation directly at the time, said he 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 won gold at the World Athletics U20 Championships in 2022.
