Olympics: ‘Viral’ Japanese pole vaulter speaks out on social media
Hiroki Ogita, the Japanese pole vaulter who rose to social media fame after his penis “stymied” his pole vault routine in the 2016 Rio Olympics, broke his silence on social media.
Ogita was booted out at the men’s pole vault competition after he “got the boot” below the belt during his stunt. But before it hit directly to his penis, his leg touched the bar at 17 feet and 4 inches.
The 28-year-old pole vaulter cleared the bar on his second attempt but was unable to progress through the qualifying stage.
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David Yeo, a Singaporean pole vaulting coach, told BBC that the pole vaulter, whose leg rubbed the cross bar, inferred that Ogita’s shorts were just crumpled and the camera was at the “wrong angle.”
“The crossbar was bound to dislodge. I think it was just the crumpling of the fabric which happened at the wrong position,” Yeo analyzed.
Article continues after this advertisementAfter being tagged in the social media feast, Ogita finally broke his silence.
In a Japanese tweet posted on Wednesday and translated by foreign media outlets, Ogita admitted, “I never expected the foreign media to take me down like this. It’s one thing if it was true, but I have to say I’m pretty devastated that they’d go so far to make something up to mock and ridicule me so much.”
ご報告
色々とありましてアカウント名を変更いたしました。
その関係で公式マークも消えてます。
まさか海外メディアにここまで陥れられるとは思いませんでした。
真実ならともかく、ここまで面白おかしく偽造されて罵られるとさすがにショックです。— 荻田大樹 (@hog1230) August 16, 2016
正直キツイですが、ある意味注目を受けているのでそれもチャンスかなと思います。
しっかり結果を出して見返してやろうと思っています。
この際、ネタでもなんでもいいので1度 競技場で試合を見てください。
棒高跳びの良さが少しでも伝わればと思います。— 荻田大樹 (@hog1230) August 16, 2016
Despite his failure to snag another medal for Japan, Ogita championed thousands of fans and supporters on social media with his optimistic hopes for the future of his sport.
“To be honest, it’s pretty rough, but I guess I’m in the spotlight so this might be some kind of opportunity. I’ll do my best and get the results so that I get the last laugh,” he tweeted in Japanese. “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.”
He even cracked up while he was watching his viral pole vault stunt.
p.s. 改めて見ると自分でもウケる。笑
— 荻田大樹 (@hog1230) August 16, 2016
“Watching again, this is pretty funny if I say so myself. LOL,” he regaled in a tweet on Wednesday. Gianna Francesca Catolico
