Tamberi, his wife Chiara: “The most beautiful birthday present”

From our correspondent Claudio Lenzi

August 23rd
– Budapest

Every promise is a debt. With a last jump, Gimbo lands in the stands in front of his wife Chiara, takes the gold medal from his neck and hands it to her in an instant of peace, before exploding like a firework above his team. “It’s my birthday present, he promised me” she is moved. We all know how much Gianmarco Tamberi speaks. Suffice it to recall January 2017, in the recovery phase from the terrible injury the year before which had cost him the Rio Olympic Games – someone said his career – he was forced to have surgery again, returning just in time for the World Cup in London, but without playing in the final. It was then that he launched the challenge: “Dear destiny, I think you have chosen the wrong person. Very soon you will see me again in that blue shirt screaming in your face louder than ever. It will be you who will put that gold medal around my neck that I have been dreaming of for years”. Six years later the miracle is accomplished. Gimbo already knew everything, even when he couldn’t help but cry.

In the DNA

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Because his parable has always been written in his DNA: mother Sabrina a physical education teacher, father Marco one of the best blue jumpers of the 70s, reached the Italian record of 2.28 and in the final at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, before giving up four years later due to a serious car accident. He has been the coach of all of his triumphs, including the Olympic one, until last year. His older brother Gianluca was also the junior blue javelin record holder, before jumping into the world of fashion and cinema as an actor in the hugely popular TV series “Don Matteo”. Gianmarco grew up in Offagna, in the Ancona countryside where he still lives today. He loves the sea of ​​Portonovo, in Numana before the Tokyo Games he asked for the hand of his Chiara with a hundred red roses. It was she who had looked for him through Facebook after a meeting between mutual friends, it ended up that after almost 14 years they got married on September 1 in Pesaro. He must have put his head in order, thinking back to what Gimbo was capable of doing a few years ago, like dyeing his hair white like Legolas in “Lord of the Rings” or winning a bronze medal at the 2011 Junior European Championships with a blister on his foot for having played barefoot basketball before the game. Basketball is still an obsession today, when he can challenge his friends Gigi Datome and Gregorio Paltrinieri on the pitch, trying to emulate the legends Tracy McGrady and James Harden. He reached the maximum in February 2022, going to dunk and score 15 points in the Celebrity Games of the NBA All Star Game, in Cleveland.

The biggest

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He was right that time too. Like five months ago, when he chose Giulio Ciotti, Michele Palloni and Andrea Battisti to get to the world gold. “We told each other before leaving the hotel, Gimbo was very determined, it was enough to cancel the qualification and remain united – reveals Ciotti -. We knew he would win, we are facing the greatest Italian athlete of all time” . “Gimbo is unique, he has always encouraged us to do that little bit more to make a difference. Today he won a group – Palloni gets excited – the motto was together to get there”. Mamma Sabrina can’t speak, the blue coach La Torre comes to her rescue: “Tamberi belongs to the history of Italian sport, he is a champion who adds another piece in Tokyo. We have never had other athletes like this, and now we are waiting for Jacobs”. Andrea Battisti represents the continuity between the gold medals of Tokyo and that of Budapest: “This morning he came to my room for one last moment of physiotherapy, I don’t know why but I had a fit of tears and at that point he said to me “don’t worry, that today I’ll take care of it” and he did it”. Finally his wife Chiara: “Too many emotions, I no longer understand anything. They have been tense, tough days, but I married a lion”. Gimbo kisses her and gets back on track, the party has just begun.