Anthony Ammirati doesn’t seem to be enjoying his viral Olympic moment as much as the internet.
The French pole vaulter spoke for the first time on the disappointment of not medaling after his privates got in the way of his performance.
The 21-year-old missed his 5.70m target on his third attempt when his bulge knocked down the pole, which led to his downfall ahead of the finals on Monday.
“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 did not address the moment that had social media gawking.“I was 100 percent physically, but I was missing a bit of pole vault,” Ammirati said.“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.”The instance also left commentators speechless. They were audibly flustered at the sight of how the pole fell, scrambling to acknowledge what had happened.