27 July 2024 , 18:56
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The Italian high jumper Gianmarco Tamberi has apologised to his wife on social media after his wedding ring was lost in the River Seine during Friday’s opening ceremony.
Tamberi, who shared high jump gold in Tokyo with Qatar’s Mutaz Barsham, was Italy’s male flag bearer for the boat parade through the French capital.
In an Instagram post to his wife, Chiara Bontempi Tamberi, he poetically described the moment the ring slipped from his finger. “Too much water, too many kilos lost in the last few months or maybe the irrepressible enthusiasm of what we were doing,” wrote Tamberi, who was sharing flag-bearing duties with the fencer Arianna Errigo.
“Probably all three things, the fact remains that I felt it [my ring] slip away, I saw it fly … I followed it with my gaze until I saw it bounce inside the boat.”
The 32-year-old said that before he could retrieve it, he saw the ring bounce again and drop into the murky waters below, in what he called “a few moments that lasted for ever.” Tamberi added: “But if I really had to lose it, I couldn’t imagine a better place. It will remain forever in the riverbed of the City of Love.”
He also suggested that his wife should throw her wedding ring into the Paris river: “[Then] they will be together for ever and we will have one more excuse to renew our vows and marry again,” he said. Chiara’s reply? “Only you could turn this into something romantic.”
Tamberi, who often shaves half his beard off for high jump finals, hopes the mishap can inspire him to earn an outright Olympic title : “May it be a good omen to return home with an even bigger gold!”