Paris 2024 Olympics, Gianmarco Tamberi nightmare: kidney stone and fever

The apprehension, in view of the Olympic appointment, è at the highest level.

Gianmarco Tamberi sees participation in the Paris 2024 Olympics hanging by a thread. The winner of gold in the men's high jump in Tokyo è in fact, he is struggling with a kidney stone, compounded by another problem: a high fever. He himself explained the situation in a post on Instagram full of pain, but also of the hope that he will be able to recover in time for his competition. Time, però, is tight.

"Incredible… It canò t be true,” reads Tamberi’s post, published Sunday. Yesterday, 2 hours after writing 'I deserve it' on social media, I felt a stabbing pain in my side. Emergency room, CT scan, ultrasound, blood test…. Probable kidney stone. And now I find myself, 3 days away from the race for which I sacrificed everything, lying in a bed, helpless, with a fever of 38.8…".

"I should have left today for Paris,” Tamberi added, “and begin my journey toward this great dream, but instead I have been advised to postpone the flight until tomorrow, in the hope that, with some rest, this nightmare will end. All I can do is wait and pray…. I do not deserve this, I have done everything for this Olympics, everything. I really do not deserve it".

So Tamberi closed his message with an intent, expressed to the fans and probably even before that to himself: "One thing è certain, I do not know how I will get there, but I will be there on that platform and I will give my soul until the last jump, whatever my condition will be. I swear it to you but even before that I swear it to myself!".

Italy won a total of 40 medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, setting a new record for the number of metals placed around its neck in a single edition of the Olympic Games. Standing on the highest step; top step of the podium in Japan were Marcell Jacobs – Men’s 100 meters, Gianmarco Tamberi – Men’s high jump, Massimo Stano – Men’s 20 km march, Antonella Palmisano – Women’s 20 km march, Men’s 4×100 relay – Lorenzo Patta, Marcell Jacobs, Eseosa Desalu, Filippo Tortu, Federica Cesarini and Valentina Rodini – Rowing, women’s lightweight doubles, Francesco Lamon, Simone Consonni, Jonathan Milan and Filippo Ganna – Cycling, men’s team pursuit, Luigi Busà – Karate, kumite -75kg and Vito Dell’Aquila – Taekwondo, -58kg.