I’m truly dumbfounded by how many people saw that as an intended dive, rather than a stumble. This is something that I see happen at least once a month in the NFL - a player makes a long run, becomes immediately fatigued, and they stumble and face plant before the end zone.
You think she just happened to stumble on the one exact step where falling took her across the finish line to win a gold medal by seven one-hundredths of a second?
I do. If there was actually something to gain by diving, it would occur with regularity.
To add, I speak from experience. While it may have been some decades, I was a competetive runner from grammar school through college, have run hundreds of races, and have seen thousands. The number of times that I’ve seen a runner dive I can count on one hand.
Given that that’s the step where runners thrust their torsos forward in an exaggerated manner, it seems like that is the step they would indeed be likeliest to stumble on.
I predict that this Japanese pole vaulter (huh, huh, I said “pole”) will be wearing a jockstrap in competition in the future.
TL : DW - As he was going over the bar, his midsection grazed the bar and pulled Mr. Happy up, which then proceeded to knock the bar off its supports.
:smack: :o
Curious. I read or heard, I believe, five accounts of this race from three countries, and I understood none of them to suggest that it was not an intentional (if perhaps unconscious) act.
Could you express that without the double negative? What did these accounts opine?
Thank you all. Very helpful