A very widely published but even more widely ignored garment malfunction situation occurred at last year's World Championships in Athletics in Helsinki, at the 3000 meters steeplechase final on August 9th.

OK, it was pouring and everyone in the audience was doing their best to keep dry, yours truly included. Anyway, rain or shine, I don’t loose my focus from the essentials. So it soon became apparent that something was wrong with the Maroccan long distance runner Brahim Boulami.
He was running like crazy (as all of the guys on the track), but from time to time he grabbed the lucky shorts he had chosen for the event and kept tugging downwards the right leg.

Most of the time everything seemed to be allright. But every time he had to jump over an obstacle his shorts would show something they were originally supposed to hide… And the rainy weather did not help at all, the wet shorts just would not stay in place.

About every sports phtotographer in the world was there, not to mention the television showing it all live in every corner of the world. That’s why I find it very odd that nobody seems to have noticed anything, although the pictures are still all over the Internet, publicly on picture services’ websites. What if this had happened to, say, Asafa Powell…

Anyway, here is a short YouTube video capture of the situation (sorry about the poor picture quality…)

And a picture cavalcade:
At first everything seemed to be business as usual.
Then something extra started to appear in the picture.
And something more...
more still
on every steeple.
At times it got rather interesting
very very interesting.

Of course Asafa Powell would have been the best guy for this role, but this casting wasn’t bad either.

Even I managed to take a couple of photos, even though my hands were shaking and all concentration on how to work the camera was gone.

A sample here.
And another one.

Any similar experiences, anyone?

Finneye,
You are always making my day with these wonderful photographic treasures.

Ed

OK, can we be on the lookout for a wardrobe malfunction from maybe Jon Garland, David Eckstein, or A-Rod?

I can't imagine not wearing something to hold the jewels in place

OK, here is another one.
Not from my camera, but from a prestigious Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter. I trust the picture is not manipulated as they give the name of the photographer and all.

This is one of the pictures in a series reporting of the daily life of Russian citizens, a portrait of a bodybuilder in Kaliningrad warming up before his three minutes on stage in a competition.

But what is that untanned thing?

I have my suspicions though it looks quite genuine...

[ June 21, 2006, 01:56 AM: Message edited by: Finneye ]

How about the guy in the upper right #929 - do I see a tip of his "little man"? eek!

[ June 21, 2006, 04:56 AM: Message edited by: copman ]

I figure it's the left arm of 330.