An Italian Olympian lost his wedding ring at the opening ceremony. His apology to his wife is everything.

While we're all out here waiting for a text that, let's be honest, isn't coming, Italian Olympic high jumper Gianmarco Tamberi is dominating the romance game.

Tamberi, who's known for occasionally rocking a half-shaved beard, has captured our hearts, but not for his high-flying athleticism. Rather, everyone's swooning over the way he handled a romantic mishap that unfolded during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony.

Tamberi, who famously shared high jump gold with Qatar's Mutaz Barshim in Tokyo 2020, was given the honour of being Italy's male flag bearer, alongside fencer Arianna Errigo.

But as they paraded through the French capital on a boat at the river-based Opening Ceremony on July 26, Tamberi lost something far more precious than any gold medal: his wedding ring.

Gianmarco Tamberi and wife Chiara Bontempi Tamberi. Image: Instagram

Tamberi's heartfelt apology to his wife, Chiara Bontempi Tamberi, has everyone talking. In a poetic Instagram post, he detailed the moment his ring was lost.

"Too much water, too many kilos lost in the last few months, or maybe the irrepressible enthusiasm of what we were doing," he shared, describing the moment he watched the ring bounce inside the boat and then disappear into the murky waters below, as "a few moments that lasted forever".

Um, cute!

"If it had to happen, if I had to lose this ring, I couldn't imagine a better place," he continued. "It will remain forever in the riverbed of the City of Love, flown away as I tried to carry the Italian flag as high as possible during the opening ceremony of the most important sporting event in the world. If I had to invent an excuse, I could never have been so imaginative."

Instead of dwelling on the loss, Tamberi then went one step further, suggesting that his wife Chiara toss her wedding ring into the iconic Parisian river as well.

"I think there may be a huge poetic side behind yesterday's misdeed and if you want, we will throw yours into that river too so that they will be together forever and we will have one more excuse to, as you always asked me, renew our vows and marry again," he proposed. 

Is anyone else's heart aflutter??

Gianmarco concluded with, "I love you, my love. May it be a good omen to return home with an even bigger gold!!!"

We kind of love Chiara's no-BS response to Gianmarco's wild apology, too: 

"Only you could turn this into something romantic."

Accompanying the high jumper's declaration of love was a carousel of images, including a photo of the couple on their wedding day in 2022, as well as a perfectly photoshopped picture of Gianmarco as Elijah Wood's Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring... dropping his precious.

Image: Instagram

Of course, an apology like that is going to attract comments, and they came pouring in all over social media. One X (formerly Twitter) user exclaimed, "Omg! That's perfection. Awaiting the photo tossing of her ring into the Seine and the vow renewal."

Another fan wrote, "How did he make losing his wedding ring sound like the most romantic thing ever?" 

While a third said, "We all forgive him."

And yes, we do. 

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