Gold medallist Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi celebrates during the medal ceremony for the men’s high jump during day six of the 26th European Athletics Championships – Rome 2024 at Stadio Olimpico on June 12, 2024 in Rome, Italy.
Gianmarco Tamberi is apologizing to his wife after losing his wedding ring during the Opening Ceremony of the Paris Olympics.
The charismatic Olympic high jump champion was overwhelmed with emotion when Italian President Sergio Mattarella gave him the country's flag to carry with fencer Arianna Errigo to lead the Italian delegation.
Tamberi proudly waved the tricolor flag while floating down the Seine in the rain with what he described as "uncontrollable enthusiasm" during the Parade of Nations.
In an Instagram message to his wife, Tamberi explained that a combination of rain, weight loss and the flag waving caused his wedding ring to slip out of his wet hands as he watched it bounce on the edge of the boat and into the river.
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"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," he wrote, adding. "It will stay forever in the riverbed of the city of love."
He then proposed that his wife also throw her ring the in Parisian river so that the two symbols of their marriage could be "together forever."
"I think there might be a huge poetic side to yesterday's misdeed, and if you want, we'll throw yours into that river, too, so they'll be together forever, and we'll have one more excuse to, like you've always asked, renew our vows and get married to new. I love you my love."
