Australian track star Michelle Jenneke got off to a rough start Wednesday during the women’s 100-meter hurdles at the 2024 Olympics, tripping and falling on the track at Stade de France and finishing last in the heat.
Jenneke, a viral sensation known for her “jiggling” warm-up, got tangled up with the third hurdle and hit the track.
The 31-year-old athlete — named one of Team Australia’s Olympic captains — completed the heat and can participate in a repechage (a.k.a. a second opportunity for competitors) in hopes of qualifying for the semifinals.
When reflecting on the disappointing start, Jenneke said she “felt something popping in my lead leg, down towards my knee,” according to News.com.au.
“So I just lost all power and that’s why I took a tumble,” the track star said.
“But I just really wanted to make sure that I got up and I finished.”
Though she experienced slight soreness the “last couple of days,” Jenneke and medical personnel “thought it was a little bit of tightness, like nothing really to be concerned about.”
“I mean, we do some general overall treatment all the time. But there was no reason to think anything like that was going to happen,” she said.
The “spirits are still high” for Jenneke, who added, “I know that there’s a good run in there, so we just got to see what we got.”
Jenneke later recapped the race in a series of Instagram Stories posted, one of which featured a bandage around her knee.
“Not feeling too bad but still waiting to see how my leg is,” one post read Wednesday.
“A little burn from the track but not too bad considering a pretty big tumble,” she noted in a separate slide.
Jenneke gained international notoriety when footage of her pre-race dance from the 2012 World Junior Championships left much of the internet in awe.
She is competing in her second Olympics following a disastrous showing at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, resulting in her Athletics Australia funding being cut.
The women’s 100-meter hurdles final is slated for Saturday.