An elite French diver made an embarrassing blunder this week at the opening ceremony of the prized Olympic venue in Paris ahead of the Summer Olympics.
The Olympic Aquatics Center cost more than $160 million and is the only permanent sports facility built for the Olympics. The 2024 Paris Summer Games will feature swimming, water polo and diving in front of approximately 5,000 fans from around the world.
The grand opening ceremony certainly created a lot of buzz, but not in the way the organizer, diver Alexis Jandard, had intended.
Jandard attended the event with other Olympic divers and explained why they were chosen to represent France at the next Olympics. In front of French President Emmanuel Macron and other VIPs, they took turns diving with perfect precision from a 30-foot diving board that towered 33 feet above the pool surface.
Reuters/Metropole du Grand Paris
But when Jandar stepped onto the low board and took the first bounce of his dive, he lost his footing and fell, hitting his back and butt on the board before bouncing back into the pool.
The 26-year-old handled the failure deftly by mocking his misfortune on social media, sharing a photo of the scrape on his back along with a message of gratitude for the support he has received.
“By the way, my back is fine, but my ego…” he joked.
Mr Gendart also appeared on French television and said he was happy that his misfortune made people laugh.
He plans to return to the 3-meter board during the Summer Olympics and hopes to turn a sluggish start into a gold medal finish.
The Olympics will open in the French capital on July 26th and run until August 11th.
