Watch the French pole vaulter joke about his giant bulge stealing the limelight
It’s the bulge seen ‘round the world! Literally.
French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati made history this week when his very noticeable bulge cost him a medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. This moment was caught on camera and instantly went viral, sparking hilarious memes, but now, the well-endowed athlete is making his own jokes about his pole knocking over the pole.
Ammirati may have lost out on the chance to secure a gold medal, but his Instagram follower count skyrocketed, and the adult content live-streaming platform CamSoda offered him $250,000 for a one-hour webcam show.
The pole vaulter and his infamous bulge may not have scooped up the lucrative offer, but he did make a TikTok video poking fun at his viral moment.
The cute video, which had already garnered 8.2 million views at the time of publication, features Ammirati eating at a table in the Olympic Village while staring blankly into the void as if he can’t believe what has happened.
Je sais pas trop si je dois le prendre bien ou pas du coup 😂 #olympics #paris2024
“POV: you create more buzz for your package than for your performances,” the text on the screen reads, translated from French by Instinct Magazine, and was captioned, “I don’t know if I should take it well or not,” with a crying-laughing emoji.
We love someone confident enough to be in on the joke!
Ammirati became a viral sensation after a video clip circulated on social media, showing the athlete attempting to clear the bar. It looks like he’s going to make it before his knees, and then his generous package knocks the bar off on his way back down to the ground.
“I was at 100% physically, but I missed a little bit of the pole,” he told the French Athletics Federation, the Huffington Post reports. “The conditions were good. It was the first time that I attacked the competition with no stress. Because I was a total outsider, I only had one objective: to play with the public. I was almost there.”
He may be going home without an Olympic medal, but he won at life!