Italian athlete Gianmarco Tamberi was hoping to defend the men’s high jump gold medal he won in Tokyo — but his body had other plans.
Tamberi, 32, defied the odds on Saturday, Aug. 10 when he competed in the high jump final at the Paris Olympics, just hours after telling his Instagram followers that he’d been rushed to the emergency room after twice vomiting blood.
Though he was determined to compete, Tamberi fell short of his gold medal goals, finishing in a second-to-last 11th place with 2.22 meters. Winner Hamish Kerr of New Zealand cleared 2.36.
The disappointing show marked the end of a difficult Olympic journey for Tamberi, who made headlines early in the Games for losing his wedding ring while serving as Italy’s flagbearer during the opening ceremony.
On the morning of his competition, Tamberi wrote on Instagram that he’d been rushed to the emergency room after dealing with renal issues and suspected kidney stones for more than 10 hours.
“The pain I have felt since this morning, however strong, is nothing compared to what I am feeling inside. Even what was my last certainty is about to vanish…” he wrote in the post, which included a photo of him inside an ambulance with an IV in his arm.
Tamberi wrote that he had vomited blood twice, and would be undergoing tests to find a cause of his illness.
“I dreamed of everything for this day except living a nightmare like this…😔,” he concluded his post.
Then, hours before he was set to compete at Stade de France, he shared a selfie that appeared to be taken on public transportation, with the caption, “I Will be there! 😡😡😡😡😡😡.”
Tamberi was the reigning co-champion of the high jump, having tied for gold in the 2020 Tokyo Games after clearing 2.37. In a rare move, he and Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar were declared joint winners of the event, as they both cleared the same height, but neither surpassed it. They opted to share the gold instead of having a jump-off.
Tamberi had previously called the high jump the “race of my life,” and had expressed excitement at the chance to defend his title.
“Tomorrow at 7pm, the race of my life,” he wrote in a post to his more than 1 million followers. “All for one day ….Everything for this moment,” he wrote on Instagram. “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!”
