If you haven’t been watching coverage of the 2024 Olympics, you might want to start. You could just find your new favorite sport: gymnastics, archery, swimming… or male pole vaulting?
The latter certainly got an, erm, large PR boost over the weekend, thanks to French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati who failed to advance to the next round because his, uh, pole got in the way.
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As the now-ridiculously viral clip from the August 3 qualifiers shows, the 21-year-old athlete appears to make it over the 5.70m bar until his package bumps into it and knocks it over on the way down.
Unfortunately, the bulge-smack cost the first-time Olympic competitor a chance at earning a medal and he officially finished in 12th place. What a bummer!
Nevertheless, the moment did earn him a gold medal on the internet as sports fans and Gay Twitter X™ users alike showed appreciation for his, uh, form.
The moment was inescapable across social media all weekend long, with one user proclaiming, “pole vault gay is gay people’s hawk tuah.” Which is fair.
While Ammirati is yet to directly address the boing heard ’round the world, he admitted that it was a “big disappointment” in an interview with the French Athletics Federation.
“I’m a bit gutted, because I didn’t miss anything,” he explained. “What I did miss was a bit of jumping in training to fine-tune the settings … 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 play with the public. I was almost there.”
The loss was particularly, erm, hard on Ammirati considering he was a firm competitor after nabbing the gold in pole vaulting at the 2022 World Athletics U20 Championships.
Still, the moment introduced him to a legion of fans who will certainly be supporting his future endeavors.
In the days following his BIG loss, the track and field star gained over 120,000 followers on Instagram.
Understandably, Ammirati seems to be still figuring out how to navigate his newfound fame.
“Thank you all for your support and this unforgettable moment 💙🤍❤️,” he wrote in an Instagram post following his loss on August 4.
Though as some users noted, he turned the comments off on a handful of past posts amidst massive pleas for him to start an OnlyFans. (Girls, behave!)
That being said, the gays aren’t the only ones who can’t get over his big moment.
According to TMZ, an adult website offered Ammirati an astonishing $250K to strip off his shorts for a 60-minute webcam show.
(“If it was up to me, I’d award you for what everyone else saw, your talent below the belt,” CamSoda VP Daryn Parker apparently wrote. Oh, brother!)
Whether Ammirati returns to the Olympics in four years or goes the OF route is still to be seen. But either way, we’re certain we haven’t seen the last of this pole vaulter (and his pole) just yet.
Check out more pics from our new favorite pole vaulter’s Instagram account below.
Kangol2
Poor thing had 1
pole too many.
m
Sexy guy
Diplomat
THE ultimate attacking penis. SO HOT!!!
Diplomat
Nothing beats pole to pole combat…
WolfLover
Anyone who has viewed THE video can see that his KNEES clipped the bar first, causing it to bob up and down, but I guess no one was looking at his knees and just waited for the boing watched around the world.