American hurdler’s junk falls out mid-race, still runs season’s best
Chris Robinson's split shorts gave up way before he did
Kevin Morris
Going “balls out” isn’t meant to be taken literally, but that might be news to American hurdler Chris Robinson. At Tuesday’s Ostrava Golden Spike meeting in the Czech Republic, the sprinter suffered a massive wardrobe malfunction while running the 400m hurdles, resulting in a very clear shot of his junk falling clean out of his split shorts. And despite reaching down to adjust himself as he came down the final stretch, Robinson was still first to cross the finish line, clocking a season’s best of 48.05 seconds.
After leaning at the line and losing his balance, 24-year-old athlete somersaulted, giving yet another explicit angle to viewers.
(Warning, this video is not censored and is graphic.)
Chris Robinson 🇺🇸 pulled off one of the wildest 400m hurdle wins you’ll ever see.
He ran half the race fighting wardrobe malfunctions; his manhood kept slipping, forcing him to readjust after nearly every hurdle.
Still won in SB of 48.05.
— Fentuo Tahiru Fentuo (@Fentuo_) June 24, 2025
“Congratulations to Chris Robinson for battling a problem that does emerge occasionally,” the commentator said. “Perhaps in a race, once in a race every two or three years, you see scenes of this from men and women; various parts of their equipment failure can make it very, very awkward. But that was a stunning effort to stay out in front with all that going on.”
Matheus Lima of Brazil earned a second-place finish in 48.11 while Vít Müller of the Czech Republic ran 48.41 for third. Following the race, Robinson laid on the track, grinning–clearly unaffected by the incident. The run was just a tenth of a second off his personal best of 47.95.
Should split shorts be banned?
But it’s not the first time an athlete’s privates have fallen out of their split shorts at a major competition. At the 2022 World U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia, Italian decathlete Alberto Nonino also caught the attention of onlookers on the 400m straightaway, but didn’t have as fortunate an outcome. In an effort to cover himself with his hand, the 18-year-old lost significant speed, and placed last in his race.
It’s also not only sprinters struggling with equipment failure on race day. In 2017, Slovakian marathoner Jozef Urban set a major personal best of 2:21:51 at the Košice Peace Marathon, despite his shorts completely failing him as he raced to the finish line.
