I don’t typically allow myself to engage in schadenfreude, that mysterious sense of pleasure fallen mankind sometimes derives from the misfortune of others.
But it’s especially difficult to resist when it happens to a Frenchman. In France. In front of his entire country. Including its president.
Is it just me? Maybe. If so, you can skip to some other story on The Western Journal — there are plenty of good ones to pick from — and not both to scroll down to the video below.
Still with me? OK, then here’s what you need to know to understand the context of the video below, as reported by The Guardian:
“The French diver Alexis Jandard slipped on a diving board during the inauguration of an Olympic swimming pool in Saint-Denis. The pool and Olympic Aquatic Center was inaugurated on Thursday by the President, Emmanuel Macron, ahead of the 2024 games in Paris.”
That should be all you need to know to enjoy fully the following 23 seconds of schadenfreude:
Ouch.
“It’s a stroke of bad luck,” Jandard told Le Parisien, according to the Guardian. “I left my DNA and there must still be a bit of my back on the board. But it’s OK, it’s just scratches. I didn’t hurt myself and that’s the most important thing.
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“Tomorrow I’m going back to training,” he added.
That sounds like a good idea.
Jandard later posted to X, thanking fans for their support and joking that his back was fine, but his ego … not so much. (Trust me; that’s how it translates, more or less.)
Merci pour la force ! pour info mon dos va bien, mon ego lui .. 😂😭
He also used the accident as a “teachable moment” on Instagram, showing a video of a flawless dive labeled “social media” and then his own flub — and the scrapes on his back — labeled “reality.”
As I consider social media one of the main mental health issues in American culture — because that’s precisely what it is — I admit I was forced to like Jandard a little more after seeing that post.
But I’ll also admit to having enjoyed my brief moment of schadenfreude first.
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George Upper is the former Editor-in-Chief of The Western Journal and was a weekly co-host of “WJ Live,” powered by The Western Journal. He is currently a contributing editor in the areas of faith, politics and culture. A former U.S. Army special operator, teacher and consultant, he is a lifetime member of the NRA and an active volunteer leader in his church. Born in Foxborough, Massachusetts, he has lived most of his life in central North Carolina.
George Upper, is the former editor-in-chief of The Western Journal and is now a contributing editor in the areas of faith, politics and culture. He currently serves as the connections pastor at Awestruck Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is a former U.S. Army special operator, teacher, manager and consultant. Born in Massachusetts, he graduated from Foxborough High School before joining the Army and spending most of the next three years at Fort Bragg. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English as well as a Master’s in Business Administration, all from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He and his wife life only a short drive from his three children, their spouses and his grandchildren. He is a lifetime member of the NRA and in his spare time he shoots, reads a lot of Lawrence Block and John D. MacDonald, and watches Bruce Campbell movies. He is a fan of individual freedom, Tommy Bahama, fine-point G-2 pens and the Oxford comma.
