“I Will be there!”: this is what Gianmarco Tamberi wrote on Instagram to announce that he will participate in the Olympic high jump final in Paris 2024.
In the last hours desperation had taken over, now the scenario seems to have changed.
The Fidal medical staff, "following the tests carried out by Gianmarco Tamberi in the early afternoon at a hospital in Paris, has verified that there are no absolute impediments regarding the athlete's participation in the Olympic final this evening". This is stated in a note from Fidal.
"It's all over. Another renal colic tonight. I don't know how I'll do it, but I'll go on the platform."
Another illness threatened to interrupt Gianmarco Tamberi's dream of repeating the gold medal in the high jump in Tokyo, and the Italian recounted his despair on Instagram.
"It's all over," he wrote in a message full of bitterness and conflicting feelings, "this morning at 5 I woke up because of the same excruciating pain as a few days ago. Another renal colic. 5 hours have passed and the pain still hasn't gone away. I managed to beat fate once after the injury in 2016, this time unfortunately I think it won. Will I still go on the platform tonight? Yes, but I really don't know how I'll be able to jump in these conditions."
In the early afternoon, it was his wife, Chiara Bontempi, who provided updates. Her husband was in the hospital for an IV.
"Even my last certainty is about to vanish," the athlete wrote again. "I was just taken to the emergency room by ambulance after vomiting blood twice." "10 hours have passed and the renal colic still hasn't gone away... The pain I've felt since this morning, however strong, is nothing compared to what I'm feeling inside."
"Now they're going to do more tests to understand what's happening. I'm updating you because the many messages I'm receiving and the love you're showing me, at the very least deserve a response. I've dreamed of everything for this day except living a nightmare like this..."