A viral video shows a botched pole vault attempt by Estonian Olympian Karel Tilga.
The failed attempt led to mockery on social media as the jokes flew. “I don’t mean to laugh but 😭 this is embarrassing,” wrote one X user. “This is what it would look like if I tried to pole vault,” joked another person.
The video shows that Tilga didn’t make it anywhere close to getting over the bar, before falling back to the ground.
🇫🇷🇪🇪 | Estonian athlete Karel Tilga missed his attempt in the pole vault. #Paris2024
A man who shared the video wrote, “I’m no expert at pole vault but I don’t think it’s supposed to go like this.”
According to 11Alive, Tilga, who attends the University of Georgia but competed for the Estonian team, “showed perseverance through a tough moment,” with the failed pole vault attempt coming on August 3. According to 11Alive, Tilga himself joked about it all on his no-longer-there Instagram story. “DM me for pv (pole vault) coaching. Here’s my resume,” he wrote, the station reported.
The Jokes Flew on Social Media, Although Some People Defended Karel Tilga After the Botched Pole Vault
“This stuff happens to me in dreams,” another person wrote on X.
“They finally allowed the ‘average guy’ to compete at the Olympics,” another person wrote.
“Honestly, I wish they would draft the competitors into the #Olympics . I’m trying to see what Bob from accounting can do on the balance beam,” a man wrote on X.
GettyKarel Tilga.
However, one person defended Tilga. “It amazes me how many people on X are joking about this. Karel Tilga finished 4th in the World Athletics Championships in the Decathlon. The pole vault is his weakest event because guess what? Running because guess what? Running full speed with a 12-ft pole to catapult yourself over a 14-ft bar is … hard,” an X user wrote.
“Still better than what I could do,” a man conceded on X.
Karel Tilga Ended Up Finishing 11th in the Men’s Decathlon Event
According to Olympics.com, Tilga also competed in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. He is 26 years old and is from Tartu, Estonia.
He placed fifth in the men’s decathlon pole vault event group A, over a number of other competitors, according to Olympics.com.
Tilga is on Instagram and has posted about the Olympics. “Karel Tilga finished 11th in decathlon at the Paris Olympics. with a score of 8377 points!” reads an August 4 post. That ranking is confirmed by Olympics.com.
According to Olympics.com, Tilga studied economics at the University of Georgia. The page says:
Finished 20th in the decathlon on his Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020.
Finished fourth on his world championships debut in 2023, scoring a personal best 8681 points, 75 short of bronze medallist Lindon Victor (GRN).
2021 NCAA Champion.
2021 NCAA indoor champion (heptathlon).
2017 European U20 Championships bronze medalist.
“I was always a hyperactive kid. We had four or five different sports you could do in my town, and I went to all of them. I trained more hours in a week when I was 12 than I do now. I probably trained around 30 hours a week just because I like moving around, I could never sit still,” he told Georgia Dogs.com.
He added to the site, “When I was still in my hometown, I didn’t really focus on track, I was still a basketball player, and then I moved into the city (Tartu), which is the second-biggest city in Estonia — it’s an Athens-sized city — and that’s when I moved away from basketball and got into track. I found a really good coach and he led me down this path.”
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Olympian Karel Tilga’s ‘Embarrassing’ Pole Vault Attempt Is Mocked as Video Goes Viral