Olympic Pole Vaulter Speaks Out After Viral Loss

French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati went to Paris with dreams of winning an Olympic medal, but the athlete's dreams came crashing down with the bar after he accidentally knocked it down during qualifying round on Aug. 3. Although Ammirati didn't get a chance to go for gold, his performance still made headlines around the world.

Video from the event showed Ammirati seemingly clearing the bar at 5.70 meters, but his knee appeared to hit the bar, knocking it out of place. As he came further down, it appeared as though his male appendage is what hit the bar and ended his Olympic dreams. That led to his jump going viral online after he was eliminated from the competition.

Now, Ammirati is looking back on what happened and shared his sadness at not being able to compete for a medal.

“It’s a big disappointment,” the 21-year-old athlete told the French Athletics Federation . "I’m a bit gutted, because I didn’t miss anything on the third attempt at 5.70 meters. What I did miss was a bit of jumping in training to fine-tune."

"It’s the first time I’ve started a competition without any stress," he added. "As I was a total outsider, I only had one goal: to compete with the public. I was almost there."

Ammirati won gold at the World Athletics U20 Championships in 2022. On Aug. 5, Armand Duplantis of Sweden won gold in the pole vault, Sam Kendricks of the United States won silver, and Emmanouíl Karalís of Greece won bronze.