Gregorio Paltrinieri broke his left elbow. The fracture occurred on the evening of the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics, which saw the Italian swimmer as the flag bearer for Italy together with his girlfriend, fencer Rossella Fiamingo.
“I broke my elbow the night of the closing ceremony. Not waving the flag though. That was nice. I’ve already had surgery, I’ll be back soon,” Paltinieri wrote in a story published on Instagram, also posting a photo of himself on a hospital bed with an elbow brace.
The exact dynamics of the accident are unknown. Fortunately, however, the elbow of the Olympic champion – the first Italian swimmer in history to win a medal in three consecutive editions of the Games – cracked when the races were already over.
In Paris, Paltrinieri finished with a bronze in the 800 meters and a silver in the 1,500 meters freestyle, while in the 10 kilometers freestyle swimming in the waters of the Seine he only came in ninth, also due to fatigue: a placing that disappointed him and that also pushed him to consider the possibility of retiring from swimming at not even 30 years old.
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