French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati seems to be downplaying the fact that he was in the headlines for all the wrong reasons at the Paris Olympics.
The 21-year-old athlete was seen joking about his penis hitting the crossbar during Saturday’s semi-final in a video that has since gone viral on social media.
“Perspective: Create more buzz with your packaging than your performance,” the message in French, translated by Google, read above a video of Ammirati eating in what appears to be an Olympic Village cafeteria.
It is unclear when the video was posted or where it originally came from.
Ammirati does not appear to have a TikTok account, and the video was not posted to his Instagram.
Despite wearing the uniform, the Frenchman has become the subject of jokes on social media with people saying his overweight physique is getting in the way of his Olympic dreams.
Ammirati had cleared the previous two heights in her only event at the Paris Olympics but fell just short of the target of 5.70 metres on her third attempt.
On his next attempt in 5.70 seconds, his knee hit the bar.
Ammirati finished in 12th place with a total score of 5.60 after four attempts.
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“It’s a big disappointment,” Ammirati told the French Athletics Federation.
“I’m a bit disappointed because I didn’t make any mistakes on my third attempt at 5.70m. If I made any mistakes it was that I missed a few jumps in training to fine-tune the settings. Just a technical session.”
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“Physically I’m 100 percent, but my pole vault was a little bit lacking,” Ammirati said at the time, without directly addressing the situation.
“The conditions were good. It was the first time I was competing without any stress. I was a complete outsider and had only one goal – to interact with the crowd. I’m almost there.”
Ammirati won a gold medal at the 2022 World Athletics U-20 Championships.
