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Tommaso Giacomel of Team Italy at the shooting range in the Men's 15 km Mass Start biathlon at the Anterselva Biathlon Arena during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games. Hendrik Schmidt/dpa
Italian gold medal contender Tommaso Giacomel has reported from hospital after having to quit during the Olympic biathlon mass start race earlier Friday.
Giacomel slowed down after leading the race after the second shooting portion and eventually pulled out and sat down in the snow. He gave an update on Instagram without giving the exact nature of his problem.
"I’m okay - if I can say I am okay when I had to DNF while I was leading an Olympic race," he posted.
"Right after the second prone my body somehow stopped working properly and I was really struggling to breath and to move, therefore I had to stop. Worst feeling I have ever experienced in my life so far.
"I tried to ski really slow the first part of the third lap but my body wasn’t allowing me to ski anymore."
He added alongside a picture of himself in a hospital bed: "I will do some medical checks the next days to find out what went wrong today."
Giacomel, who led the World Cup for a few weeks in January, said the disappointment was huge. He won mixed team silver in the first Olympic race while Friday's competition was his last chance to add individual silverware.
"A lot is going through my head at the moment ... frustration, anger, disappointment ... It’s devastating. It’s devastating to stop but there wasn’t anything I could do against my own body today."
But he vowed he would be back for the 2030 Games in the French Alps, saying: "Absolutely not the end of the games I was hoping for but I will never give up. 4 years fly by fast and I will try again in France.
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