French Pole Vaulter Anthony Ammirati Doesn’t Mention Viral Crotch Moment in Statement

Videos of French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati went viral after he seemingly knocked off the bar with his crotch during the men’s pole vaulting qualifying event at the 2024 Olympics . However, that wasn’t the case.

Videos of Anthony, 21, went viral when it seemed like his bulge cost him a chance at the men’s pole vault final on August 4. However, if viewers watched carefully, Anthony’s shins hit the crossbar first, followed by his feet. While the Grasse, France, native’s crotch caused the bar to become fully dislodged, he was already disqualified by his shins.

Plus, the men get three separate attempts at different heights to make the finals. Anthony successfully vaulted over the crossbar when it was at 5.40 meters and 5.60 meters, but he was unsuccessful at his three attempts to cross over at 5.70 meters.

Anthony didn’t mention the viral moment during an interview after the event, but he admitted that the outcome was a “big disappointment.”

“I'm a little disappointed, because I didn't miss anything on the third try at 5.70 m.,” Anthony said in a statement released by the French Athletics Federation . “What I'm missing is a bit of jumping around in training to fine-tune the settings. Just a technical session.”

Anthony continued, “I had to give up on the last two, because following a small grade 1 in the adductor, I prioritized the race. I was 100 percent physically, but I was missing a little pole. The conditions were good. This is the first time that I attacked a competition without any stress. As I was a total outsider, I only had one objective: to play with the public. I was almost there.”

Despite Anthony’s package not being the cause of the crossbar’s fall, social media users couldn’t get enough of the clip.

“21-year-old French pole-vaulter Anthony Ammirati may have lost out on Olympic Gold, but I see big things in his future,” one person joked on X .

Another person lumped Anthony in with fellow viral athletes Stephen Nedoroscik , the bespectacled pommel horse specialist , and Yusuf Dikec , the shooter from Turkey whose relaxed demeanor gained him fans.

“Nerdy pommel horse kid. Gen X Turkey chill shooter. French dude bringing two poles to the vaulting comp. This year's Olympics is chock full of dude-y goodness,” the X user wrote.

Surprisingly, Anthony’s viral bulge moment isn’t the first time a competitor’s appendage has dislodged the crossbar during an event. In the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Japanese pole vaulter Hiroki Ogita had a near-identical mishap. When he attempted a vault during a qualifying event, his leg, then his crotch and finally, his arms knocked the bar from its place and disqualified him.

“I never expected the foreign media to take me down like this,” Hiroki wrote via X (Twitter at the time,) according to the BBC . "It's one thing if it was true, but I have to say I'm pretty devastated that they'd go so far to make something up to mock and ridicule me so much."

Hiroki later looked back on the moment and admitted it was a comical.

"Watching again, this is pretty funny, if I say so myself. LOL,” he posted.