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Come Fan with UsFriday, June 19, 2026

Whatever you do, definitely don’t google the BYU pole vaulter

Good lord, please don’t let this happen to anyone ever again.

There are moments when seeing someone get hit in the scrotum is funny. Like that time the cricket player got beaned not once, not twice, but thrice in a single match. You feel for the fella, sure, but you can’t help but chuckle and thank the gods above it isn’t you in those shoes.

Brigham Young University pole vaulter Zach McWhorter no doubt wishes he wasn’t in his own shoes during one fateful practice last fall. The 21-year-old shared with his story with Buzzfeed, as well as the Tik Tok video of a vault he was attempting last September that went very awry.

As McWhorter cleared the bar and began his decent, he landed on the pole and ...

... Listen, I’m not encouraging you to watch the video (5.7 million people already have), but it will all make a lot more sense if you do. Why? Because it’s really hard to describe the reaction of someone who has just had their scrotum pierced while falling from the sky.

And if you’re squeamish, please don’t hit play at all:

McWhorter, who holds the 10th-best pole vault in BYU history and a personal best of 18 feet, 4.75 inches, was able to assess the damage with the help of his father, who is a urologist and also his coach, and who was filming the practice for his son.

“I could see right into my scrotum,” McWhorter told BuzzFeed.

McWhorter’s father helped his son into the car and then drove him to his urology office where he mended the injury with the help of — wait for it — 18 (EIGHTEEN!) stitches.

That’s 18 damn stitches to close up a hole he pierced on his damn balls, people. Holy hell.

“Yeah, never been closer with my father until that day,” Zach said in an interview with KUTV in Salt Lake City.

It could have been worse, I guess. McWhorter’s pole vaulting career is far from over (he competed in and set his PR during a January meet in New York) and he told BuzzFeed that, as far as he knows, the only lasting effect from the accident is a scar.

Of course, only time will tell.

“One day, we’ll find out if they function or not,” he said.

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