France beat Germany in the quarterfinals of the men's Olympic volleyball competition on Monday. Germany blew a 2-0 lead as the defending champions came back to advance to the semifinals. They'll take on Italy on Wednesday with a trip to the gold medal match on the line.
To add insult to injury and a bad result, the one highlight from the match that NBC Sports is sharing is Germany's Moritz Karlitzek getting hit in the face with a rocket spike from France's Barthelemy Chinenyeze.
Germany's Moritz Karlitzek took a volleyball spike to the face. 😳 #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/3yL7UcXkJl
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) August 6, 2024
No offense to Karlitzek, but when a 6-foot-8 middle blocker who is also a Knight of the Legion d'honneur goes up for a ball set that perfectly, you have to just get out of the way. You don't get an award like that for not being awesome at volleyball.
And the consequences for not getting out of the way? American television stations are going to be tweeting about you.
We love bloopers and there's nothing more comedically pure than someone getting hit in the face with a sports ball. Sorry, those are the rules. Thank you for your service.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as German Olympic Volleyball Player Immortalized By Spiked Ball to the Face.
