Gianmarco Tamberi tried to make the best of a bad situation after losing his wedding ring in the River Seine.
Tamberi, who shared high-jump gold with Qatari athlete Mutaz Essa Barshim at the Tokyo games, travelled to Paris as Italy's flag-bearer for the 2024 opening ceremony . However, on Saturday, he was left making a desperate plea to his wife Chiara Bontempi.
"I'm sorry, my love, I'm so sorry," he wrote on Instagram. "Too much water, too many kilos lost in the last few months or maybe the irrepressible enthusiasm of what we were doing.
"Probably all three things, the fact remains that I felt it slip away, I saw it fly.... I followed it with my gaze until I saw it bounce inside the boat. A tinkle of hope... But unfortunately the bounce was in the wrong direction and floating more than a thousand times in the air I saw it dive into the water as if that was the only place where it wanted to be."
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Tamberi, 32, attempted to convince Chiara to follow his unintentional example and throw her own ring into the river. "A few moments that lasted forever. But if it really had to happen, if I really had to lose this faith, I couldn't imagine a better place," he continued.
"It will remain forever in the riverbed of the city of love, flown away while I was trying to raise the Italian tricolor as high as possible during the opening ceremony of the most important sporting event in the world . If I had to invent an excuse I would never have been so imaginative.
"I think there could be a huge poetic side behind yesterday's misdeed and if you want we will also throw yours into that river so that they will be together forever and we will have one more excuse to, as you always asked me, renew our vows and get married again.
I love you my love. May it be a good omen to return home with an even bigger gold!!!"
Will Tamberi win another high jump gold in Paris? Have your say in the comments section
Tamberi and his high jump rivals have more than a week to wait before their Olympic campaign gets underway. Qualification is due to take place on August 7, with the final three days later.
There are two Italians vying for glory this time around, with Stefano Sottile the other, while Barshim is Qatar's sole representative. They'll all have to contend with world number one Hamish Kerr, from New Zealand, who won the Diamond League events in Monaco and London in the lead-up to the Olympics.
In Tokyo, Tamberi and Bassim memorably opted to share gold rather than have a jump-off. “We have passed through many difficult times and now to win the Olympic championship together - I don’t know what to say," Tamberi said at the time. “I have dreamed, we have dreamed it, so many times and now we did it.”
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