Gianmarco Tamberi, also winner of the gold medal at the European Championships in Rome, showed up at the Olimpico for the final with the so-called half-beard, the half-shave which has become his distinctive trait.
Gimbo won again. Let’s leave aside the rankings of the best Italian athletes of all time. Let’s just say that after winning the Olympics and World Championships a Rome he won his second gold at the European Championships, and with full merit he will be one of Italy’s two standard-bearers at Paris Olympics. And once again he triumphed with this half beard, which has become one of his main characteristics. The other is being a serial-winner.
Double gold at the European Championships for Tamberi, who is also aiming for a double at the Olympics
In the space of three years he won everything he could. There are very few athletes who can boast of all the major titles. You won the 2024 European Championships at home, in Rome, also in front of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella. Yet another triumph, with a nice 2.37, which is also a good omen for Paris, where he will try to do an Olympic encore.
The half-shave in all major finals except one
Tamberi is one of the strongest Italian athletes ever, and this is enough to make him popular, but the half-beard – the half-shave – is also one of his characteristics. It all started in 2011 in the Italian junior championships, To lighten the tension, the blue only cuts the beard on the right side. He wins the medal and gets the performance he wants. From that moment on, the half-shave becomes his distinctive trait. He takes it with him to all the major races of his career.
No, Tamberi didn’t really jump in at the European Championships: the detail was overlooked
Although when he arrives in Tokyo for the 2021 Olympics, he puts the ritual aside, all the beard away. In that case there was something more. There was a taboo to dispel and for this reason she said: “I destroyed all my rituals to fly again, but that doesn’t mean that in the future I won’t show up with one piece of my face shaved and another not.”
At the World Championships in Budapest the half-shave returns and so does the gold. First gold in a World Cup, with his trademark, and the same thing happened in Rome, where he showed up with half a beard and won another gold medal. Now all that remains is to wait for Paris to see if he will show up in the final of the Olympic Games without a beard like in Tokyo, or if he will continue with the half-shave.
