Paris is known as the ‘City of Love,’ and that reputation was confirmed by Olympian Gianmarco Tamberi. The Italian athlete lost his wedding ring during the opening ceremony when he sailed across the River Seine on July 26.
The 32-year-old high jumper and flag bearer, who represents Italy in the 2024 Paris Olympics, lost his prized possession. In response, he used heartfelt words to apologize to his wife, Chiara Bontempi Tamberi, to declare his love for her despite not having the wedding symbol physically.
The Italian love story continues with an Instagram post shared on July 27. Gianmarco wrote to his beloved in his native language, “I’m sorry my love, I’m so sorry. Too much water, too many kilos lost in the past few months, or maybe the uncontrollable enthusiasm of what we were doing. Probably all three things, just the fact that I heard it parade, I saw it fly … I followed her with a glance until I saw her bouncing inside the boat. 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. A few moments that lasted an eternity.”
His profound love for his wife was outpoured into the rest of his poetic note where he noted, “It will stay forever in the riverbed of the city of love, flown away while I tried to carry the Italian tricolor as high as possible during the opening ceremony of the most important sport event in the world.”
Gianmarco suggested this could be a sign for a marriage renewal. “I think there might be a huge poetic side to yesterday’s misdeed… and we’ll have one more excuse to, like you’ve always asked, renew our vows and get married anew. I love you my love. May it be auspicious to come home with even bigger gold!!!,” he concluded his message.
Chiara, who collaborated on the post he shared, commented in Italian along with crying and heart emojis, “Only you can turn something similar into something romantic.”
The couple has been married for nearly two years, and despite the loss, they are able to come together and hopefully see Gianmarco earn another prized possession. He has earned gold by winning the top spot in the high jump competition alongside Mutaz Barshim, at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.