Claim: Anthony Ammirati, a French pole vaulter, lost out on an Olympic medal due to his groin area affecting his performance.
Fact: Anthony Ammirati was knocked out of the Olympics because he failed to clear the necessary height.
On 3 August 2024, Anthony Ammirati attempted to qualify for the Paris Olympics final at Stade de France. He failed to clear the bar on his third attempt and finished 12th to miss the final.
Following his disqualification, viewers flocked to social media to debate his slip-up. X user Alistair Pallesen with the handle @yzimng2 posted a video (archive) of Ammirati’s attempt with the caption: “French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati fails to medal after his Male organs knocked the bar over”.
Variety published an article (archive) headlined “French Pole Vaulter’s Bulge Costs Him an Olympic Medal”.
Social media has since been flooded with jokes with many believing that his groin area contributed to his failure. The archived posts can be seen here and here.
What is the pole vault?
Pole vault is a track and field event in which athletes attempt to clear a horizontal bar by sprinting down a runway and using a pole to catapult themselves into the air. The athlete who clears the highest bar without knocking the bar down wins.
According to the rules by World Athletics, formerly known as the International Association of Athletics Federations, which govern pole vaulting events, an attempt is considered a failure if the vaulter knocks off the crossbar with any part of their body or with the pole. Touching the pole or the crossbar itself does not disqualify the vaulter as long as the crossbar remains in place and is not knocked off.
A vaulter is disqualified if they fail to clear a height after three attempts, or if they fail to start the competition. Disqualification can also occur if they violate other rules of the competition, but touching the pole or the crossbar alone is not a disqualifying factor.
Fact or Fiction?
In his statement available on the French Athletic Federation website, Anthony Ammirati said, “C’est une grosse déception. Je suis un peu dégoûté, parce qu’il ne me manque rien au troisième essai à 5,70 m. Ce qu’il me manque, c’est un peu de sauts à l’entraînement pour peaufiner les réglages. Juste une séance technique. J’ai dû faire une croix sur les deux dernières, parce qu’à la suite d’une petit grade 1 à l’adducteur, j’ai priorisé la course. J’étais à 100 % physiquement, mais il me manquait un peu de perche. Les conditions étaient bonnes. C’est la première fois que j’attaquais un concours avec aucun stress. Comme j’étais un total outsider, je n’avais qu’un objectif : jouer avec le public. J’y étais presque”.
[Translated from French: It’s a big disappointment. I’m a little disappointed, because I didn’t miss anything on the third try at 5.70 metres. What I’m missing is a bit of jumping around in training to fine-tune the settings. Just a technical session. I had to give up on the last two, because following a small grade 1 in the adductor, I prioritized the race. I was 100% physically, but I was missing a little pole. The conditions were good. This is the first time that I attacked a competition without any stress. As I was a total outsider, I only had one objective: to play with the public. I was almost there.]
Ammirati did not address the issue of his noticeable bulge and instead attributed his failure to a slight lack of training and skill.
Ammirati also re-shared a tribute posted by French sports academy Envol on Instagram, which was captioned: “Nous sommes fiers de toi @anthony_ammirati malgré les deux dernières semaines perturbées physiquement tu as réussis à être présent, même si nous sommes frustrés comme toi pour cette barre à 5m70.”
[Translated from French: We are proud of you @anthony_ammirati despite the last two weeks of being physically disturbed you managed to show up, even though we are frustrated like you for that 5m70 bar.]
Soch Fact Check also conducted a keyword search to further investigate the claim and found an article (archive) by People Magazine that debunked the theory that Ammirati lost solely because of his bulge. According to the article, Ammirati attempts to clear the bar during the jump, but first hits it with his shins and then his knees. Though the jump was already a failure, it was further compounded by Ammirati knocking the bar off completely after hitting it with his crotch.
However, that particular jump was not the reason Ammirati didn’t advance to the pole vault final on 5 August, the publication noted. In pole vaulting, athletes have attempts to clear progressively higher heights, starting at 5.40 meters. While Ammirati successfully cleared the first two heights—5.40 and 5.60 meters— he was unable to clear the next height of 5.70 meters in his three attempts, the article added.
Branko Miric, a pole-vaulting coach and the founder of Apex Vaulting, told Today.com (archive) “He [Anthony Ammirati] definitely hit the bar with his legs first and was going to miss that attempt anyway”.
Miric explained to the publication that in pole vaulting, athletes have three attempts to clear each bar, and if successful, they get another three attempts at the next, higher bar. “He just had a miss,” the coach added, according to Today.com.
The article noted that, “Ammirati successfully cleared his jumps at 5.40 meters and 5.60 meters but experienced his blunder on his third attempt attempt [sic] to clear his 5.70 meter jump. Olympians had to clear a 5.80 meter height to proceed through to the final”.
According to the same article, Miric observed that the viral moment of Ammirati’s miss, is in fact, a ‘very common occurrence’ as athletes tend not to get enough depth to clear a vault over the crossbar. “You have to go deep enough to get over the bar. It’s very common in the vault, you’ll see people who look like they have the height, but they don’t have enough depth and they come down on it and the bar falls off.” he added, while speaking to Today.com.
Virality:
The claim was shared on X here, here, here, here, here, and here. Archived here, here, here, here, here and here.
On Instagram it was shared here, here, here, here, and here.
It was also shared on Facebook here, here, here, and here.
On Threads it was shared here and here.
Conclusion: Anthony Ammirati did not fail to qualify for the Paris Olympics pole vault final due to his bulge, but rather because he was unable to clear the height of 5.70 meters.
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Background image in cover photo: Reuters
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