Italian Olympian Gianmarco Tamberi arrived in Paris planning to defend his gold medal for men’s high jump. Instead, he’s been making headlines for a streak of rotten luck.
Just hours before Tamberi was set to compete in the finals, he announced he was in an ambulance heading to the emergency room after “vomiting blood” on two separate occasions.
“I dreamed of everything for this day except living a nightmare like this…😔,” the high jumper wrote on Instagram, alongside a photo of him in the ambulance clutching someone’s hand.
ADVERTISEMENT
Tamberi left for the hospital roughly six hours after he told his 1.1 million Instagram followers that he had woken up with kidney stones, lamenting that five hours had passed but “the pain is still not over.”
Tamberi ultimately made it to the Olympic Games, where he finished eleventh in a 12-man final. He failed on all three of his attempts to jump over the second height of the competition before hanging his head in defeat.
One day before his devastating dethroning, he shared a positive message with fans about how much defending his place on the podium meant to him.
“Tomorrow at 7pm, the race of my life,” he wrote. “A little more than 24h to the one I wish with all my heart I will remember for the rest of my life as one of the best nights ever!”
Tamberi’s crushed podium dreams were even more heartbreaking for the athlete, who was already bereft after losing his wedding ring in the Seine during the opening ceremony on July 26.
“I love you my love ❤️,” he wrote in an apology to his wife. “May it be a good omen for returning home with an even bigger gold.”
