Italian high jumper Gianmarco Tamberi started off the 2024 Summer Olympics with what he believes to be a good omen for the games — but it’s a costly one.
Tamberi lost his wedding ring while serving as his country’s flag bearer on a boat in the Seine River during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics on Friday.
He wrote a big apology to his wife on social media on Saturday.
“Too much water, too many kilos lost in the last few months or maybe the irrepressible enthusiasm of what we were doing,” Tamberi wrote on Instagram in a post directed at his wife, Chiara Bontempi Tamberi.
“Probably all three things, the fact remains that I felt [my ring] slip away, I saw it fly…. I followed it with my gaze until I saw it bounce inside the boat,” the post continued. “A Glimmer of Hope … But unfortunately the bounce was in the wrong direction and floating more than a thousand times in the air I saw her dive into the water like that was the only place she wanted to be.”
However, Tamberi admitted that if he was going to lose it, he “couldn’t imagine a better place” and it would be “forever in the riverbed of the City of Love.”
He offered to throw his wife’s ring in the river as well so “they’ll be together forever” and also said it’s an excuse to renew their vows and get married again.
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His wife responded on the post, saying: “Only you can turn something similar into something romantic,” along with a few crying and heart emojis.
She posted several videos on her Instagram story to document the exciting moments of the opening ceremony, including Lady Gaga’s performance and Tamberi waving at her and blowing her kisses from Italy’s boat on the Seine.
Tamberi, 32, won gold in Tokyo in 2021 for his first Olympic medal.
The qualifying round for the men’s high jump is set for Aug. 7, and the final will take place three days later.
“May it be a good omen to return home with an even bigger gold!” Tamberi concluded his post.