French Pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati saw his Olympic dream go up in smoke in unfortunate circumstances with his penis causing his downfall.
The 21-year-old, competing in front of his home crowd, looked all set to clear 5.70m and take a major step towards the final of his event before disaster struck.
As the Frenchman prepared to relinquish his pole, his own manhood grazed the bar with enough force to send it crashing to the floor, thus ending his hopes of a medal.
Ammirati had already cleared two heights before his bulge brought a premature end to his competition. He eventually finished 12th with a height of 5.60 in Group A.
Robin Emig and Thibault Collet, Ammirati’s compatriots, meanwhile, recorded heights of 5.60 meters and 5.75 meters, respectively.
Collet, who became the third-best French performer in pole vault history in June after clearing a bar at 5.95 meters, said of his performance on Saturday: ‘When people say that the Games are different, well, it really is different.
‘Today, I missed my competition. I knew that this qualification was going to be tough and now I’m taking it in the face.
‘The Olympic Games are over. I’m going to pack my bags before going home.’
Ammirati wasn’t the only athlete to suffer a disappointing premature exit on Saturday with British sprinter Jeremiah Azu disqualified without even getting the chance to race after a false start.
‘Honestly, I just reacted to a sound,’ said Azu before confirming he would appeal the decision. ‘It’s a shame. The crowd are so excited and the French fans are here.
“It’s a shame that they didn’t let me run at the protest – I’m not sure what rules are being used but they have said I need to go back and put an appeal in so I’m going to go through the process and see what happens.
‘I was saying I wanted to run with the protest. In any other race, they allow you to run and then they review it but this is the Olympics and clearly it’s different rules.
‘I just want to put in this appeal as quickly as possible so that I can come back out here and get into the semi-final.’
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