ROME – From 18 to 27 October 2019 the city that then became the outbreak of the pandemic in China, Wuhan, had hosted the World Military Games.
Ten thousand athletes from all over the world met in Wuhan that week.
Of course, Italians are among the athletes.
About 200 Italians including athletes, technical staff and accompanying managers.
Among these also Matteo Tagliariol, sword Olympian in Beijing 2008 and summoned for the team test with Paolo Pizzo and Lorenzo Buzzi.
“When we arrived in Wuhan – his words to the Gazzetta dello Sport – almost everyone got sick. I have had a cough, a lot of cough.
Valerio Aspromonte has been in bed almost all the time. Many have had fever, although not very high ".
“There was someone with a mask, but as I had already seen on Chinese trips. Nothing more.
The only thing is that in the infirmary there were no longer even aspirins, all finished, so much had been the request for medicines for all those who had fallen ill ”.
For Tagliariol the worst came on the way home.
“For a week – he tells La Gazzetta dello Sport – I was pretty well, then I had a very high fever.
I am asthmatic, but the problem is mild, and in those days I felt that I was not breathing. I said to Martina (Batini, her partner, blue of the foil): if you see that I am not breathing well, call the hospital ".
The illness did not go away even after a cure with antibiotics.
“Not even that changed anything, in the end I was sick three weeks, always with a cough, very debilitated.
Eventually I recovered and Leo got sick (his son will turn 2 next week), also for three weeks with an impressive cough.
We were told that he had bronchospasm, but it didn't even resolve with Ventolin, then Martina got sick too, but more mildly.
When I started talking about the virus, without any medical skills, I said to myself: then I took it. I'm 37 years old, I'm sporty, I've been really bad compared to my standards ".
The suspicion is legitimate: was it coronavirus?
It is not known.
In fact, Tagliarol himself explained on Instagram that “I don't know if it was coronavirus. I have never been tested and I don't have the scientific knowledge to know it. " (Source: La Gazzetta dello Sport, Instagram).
Source: Blitz Quotidiano