Gianmarco Tamberi: the high-flying showman battling long jump’s superheroes Premium

After his World Championships triumph, the flamboyant Italian now has a full collection of major high jump golds in an extremely competitive era often headlined by the phenomenal Mutaz Essa Barshim. Their showdown at Paris 2024 will be one for the ages

Judging by his athletic intensity, his unchained exuberance and his ‘train hard, party hard’ approach to competing, Gianmarco Tamberi isn’t a man for half measures. And yet his signature look when high jumping is a half-bearded, half-shaved face.

Apparently, there is a method to the Italian showman’s madness. His track-and-field appearance — GQ Magazine once ran an item about his unconventional grooming habits titled “Don’t do this” — isn’t merely superstition. It’s a ritual that helps him enter ‘the zone’.

“In competition, the only thing that is a must for me is to have fun and make the viewer have fun,” he once said in an interview, explaining his facial-hair style. “When I have fun, I relax. That’s why I started with this half beard, half shave. And that became in time a big superstition. It also becomes a moment for me, in the mirror, when I shave, I think about the competition, I think about what I have to do. It becomes a big moment for me before the competition.” 

This moment of meditative introspection is the calm before the storm. For when he is in a stadium, he is driven by the emotions of the crowd, both feeding it and feeding off it. “I like when I have the crowd close to me, I like this sharing of emotions,” he said. “When I go to the stadium, that’s where the magic happens — the competition starts, I’m an adrenaline guy.”

This was in evidence again at the recent World Championships in Budapest, where the flamboyant 31-year-old, wearing one green sock and one red, claimed his first World title and leapt into the water hazard of the steeplechase in wild celebration with Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali, who had just raced to gold in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase.

The triumph meant Tamberi now has a full collection of high jump golds, having also captured the Olympic, World Indoor, European and Diamond League crowns.

His sharing of Olympic gold with good friend and rival Mutaz Essa Barshim was one of the most memorable, heart-warming moments from Tokyo, but after clearing a world-leading 2.36m in Budapest, the Italian stood alone, to the delight of the raucous Italian fans in the crowd, who chanted “Gimbo! Gimbo!” as he waved his long arms in encouragement.