Laughter moment when diver falls during Olympic swimming pool opening

world news

by Sneyana Faberov

French Olympic diver Alexis Gendar made a splash with the opening of Paris' new Olympic pool, but it wasn't in the way he had hoped.

Eye-popping video at Thursday's inauguration of the multi-million dollar Paris Aquatics Center, attended by French President Emmanuel Macron and other dignitaries, shows the 26-year-old Olympian showing his right foot during preparations. It shows him landing awkwardly. Jump in with two other athletes.

Jandar, wearing a Speedo in the colors of the French flag, is seen landing painfully on his back, bouncing off a 10-foot-tall diving board and tumbling upside down and sideways into the pool.

Jandar, who competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, cleverly expressed his embarrassing blunder, writing to X: “FYI, my hips are fine, but my ego…”

The athlete took to her Instagram Story to share a photo of her back covered in red scrapes after a run-in on the diving board.

“I'm fine. I didn't get hurt, but unfortunately things like this happen,” Jandard told RMC Sport. “It happened at a timing I didn't expect at all.”

“I've broken boards before, but boards have never broken me,” he added. “Now that's what it is. I wish this ceremony had gone smoothly from start to finish, but there was a little hiccup. If it makes people smile a little bit, then that's it.

Asked to explain what exactly happened, Jandar said his leg broke when he landed, but insisted he hadn't slipped.

“It's non-slip. [board] Plus, the board was new and clean, and I think it's still there. [some of] I had my back on the board there,” he joked.

Jandar, who won silver and bronze medals at the 2022 and 2023 World Aquatics Championships respectively, laughed off the whole ordeal.

“It's unfortunate but interesting,” he admitted. “When you step back, things get interesting.”

The athlete, who will compete in the Paris 2024 Olympics this summer, said that “things like this happen often” in his sport, but jokingly lamented that “it had to happen in front of the president and all of France.” . I think we chose the right moment. ”

Jandar said she has been flooded with messages of support, and some have made fun of her clumsy dive.

“Have fun, make fun of me,” the athlete said on Instagram. “You really deserve it!”