Gianmarco Tamberi the gold at the European Athletics Championships in Rome 2024: the sneakers with the springs and the kiss to his Chiara

Pure joy that Gimbo experienced, during a Roman evening that he will never forget and which projects him with renewed enthusiasm to the next Paris 2024 Olympics, which will start in just over a month. After his success at the World Championships in Budapest 2023, Tamberi risked leaving the race at 2 meters and 29 centimetres, a measurement that he managed to overcome on the third, very difficult, attempt. Then that bronze medal became a shining gold with the triple jump higher and higher from 231 to 237 centimetres.

In addition to his usual irony, worthy of the best performer or the most charismatic frontman of a rock group – be it with his hair loose and with that half-bearded face, as he usually does superstitiously before every important final – Gianmarco Tamberi showed all his contagious determination. That of the lion who roars and who, frightened and wounded in the most difficult moment, knows how to react to roar even louder. And the fluorescent Puma sneakers bring him to the top, but it is another detail that is both sporty and fashionable that brings him luck: these are the personalized socks that feature his half-shave face, also printed in clear letters on the shirt.

Gianmarco Tamberi, the detail of the half-shave socks

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Gianmarco Tamberi, European Athletics Championships Rome 2024

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After quickly falling in love with the public, who were literally delirious for him, the national Gimbo even took off his tank top and also hugged his mother, Sabrina Piastrellini. Then he reached the head of state Sergio Mattarella like a superhero, sitting in the stands and standing to applaud him. The European champion reached him with the tricolor flag on his shoulders, to pay homage to him, in a spectacular bow that in reality should be made to him.