“I dreamed of everything for this day except living a nightmare like this,” the Italian athlete wrote, along with a photo from an ambulance

Reigning Olympic High Jump Champion Gianmarco Tamberi posts photo from ambulance on Instagram. Photo: Silvia Lore/Getty; Gianmarco Tamberi/Instagram

Italian high jumper Gianmarco Tamberi shared devastating news that he was headed to the ER just hours before he was set to defend his gold medal in the men’s high jump final.

Tamberi, 32, posted a photo on Instagram from the inside of an ambulance, showing the lower half of his body on a stretcher with an IV in his arm, and holding another person’s hand tightly.

“10 hours have passed and the renal colic still hasn’t gone away,” Tamberi wrote alongside the harrowing photo. “The pain I have felt since this morning, however strong, is nothing compared to what I am feeling inside. Even what was my last certainty is about to vanish…” he continued in the post.

The Italian Olympian — who won gold in the men’s high jump in the Tokyo Games three years prior — said he was “just taken to the ER by ambulance after vomiting blood twice.”

“Now they will do more tests on me to understand what is happening,” he explained, promising to “update” his followers when he can “because the many messages I’m receiving and the love you’re showing me at least deserve a response,” Tamberi wrote.

In a heartbreaking final sentence, Tamberi wrote, “I dreamed of everything for this day except living a nightmare like this…😔.”

Gianmarco Tamberi’s Instagram post from ambulance before 2024 Olympic final event. Gianmarco Tamberi/Instagram

Tamberi’s announcement that he was going to the hospital came roughly six hours after he wrote in an earlier Instagram post, “Woke up at 5am this night because of the same throwing pain I had a few days ago. Yet another kidney colic. It’s been 5 hours and the pain is still not over.”

The gold medalist said he was “speechless” and “truly, so sorry,” adding that he “really doesn’t know” how he was “going to jump in these conditions.”

One day before the disheartening update, Tamberi told his followers on Instagram that he was excited to compete in the high jump final at the Stade de France in Paris.

“Tomorrow at 7pm, the race of my life. All for one day ….Everything for this moment,” he wrote. “A little more than 24h to the one I wish with all my heart I will remember for the rest of my life as one of the best nights ever!”