Henrik Rummel Responds To Olympic Bulge Drama: 'I Swear It's Not Erect!'

Earlier this week, unsuspecting audiences were shocked to find themselves staring at what appeared to be a perfectly outlined erection in skintight pants belonging to U.S. Olympian Henrik Rummel, whose team just earned the bronze medal at the London 2012 rowing event. “I swear it’s not erect!” Rummel commented on Reddit. “I don’t know why it ended up in that position but there you go.”

Both Rummel and his girlfriend were good sports about the incident. “I laughed very hard! I woke up my girlfriend and told her the story. Then I told everyone else I knew, except my parents,” Rummel told Gawker. “She would've preferred if it had never happened, but she appreciates the humor behind her boyfriend's package going viral!”

But the fire had been lit. Twitter perked up instantly (read our top 10 funniest tweets) and Rummel’s promising bulge even made a guest appearance on The Daily Show, where Jon Stewart and chief investigator Al Madrigal discussed the physics — and the philosophy — of an erection. “Can a penis be both erect and not erect at the same time?” Madrigal posed. Perhaps a better question: “Who gets a boner for a f***ing bronze?” Madrigal wondered.

The long and short of it? As one eloquent Reddit user put it: "Dude, when you win a medal in the goddamn olympics your penis can be however you want. You earned it."

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