Japanese pole vaulter Hiroki Ogita has denied that it was actually his penis that cost him a crucial vault and his Olympic run, saying he is “devastated that [the foreign media would] go so far to make something up to mock and ridicule me so much.”
“I never expected the foreign media to take me down like this,” Ogita tweeted, according to the New York Post. His Twitter account now appears to have been deactivated.
“To be honest, it’s pretty rough, but I guess I’m in the spotlight so this might be some fkind of opportunity,” he added. “I’ll do my best and get the results so that I get the last laugh. It doesn’t matter if you do it for a joke or whatever, I ask you to go and watch an actual game at a stadium for once. I hope you appreciate, even a bit, what a great sport pole vaulting is.”
His coach, David Yeo, added that it was “just the crumpling of the fabric which happened at the wrong position” which made it seem like Ogita’s manhood struck the bar during qualifying rounds.
Ogita was attempting to clear a height of 17.3 feet when his leg came in contact with the bar, which caused it to wobble.
Then, it seemed like Ogita’s penis hit the bar as well, after which Ogita’s arm grazed the bar before falling to the ground.
He cleared the height on his second attempt, but the athlete didn’t score high enough to qualify for the finals, leaving him in 21st place.
In case you missed it, here is the video of the fall.