The athlete missed a medal by starting to celebrate a little before the finish line

Spanish athlete Laura Garcia-Caro missed out on the bronze medal at the 2024 European Championships in the 20 km race walking discipline because she began to rejoice at the podium before crossing the finish line.

Garcia-Caro, in third place going into the final straight at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy, began celebrating the bronze medal she thought she had already won as she approached the finish line. However, her smile of joy disappeared when Ukrainian athlete Lyudmila Olyanovskaya ran past her just five meters before the finish line.

This fragment of the broadcast quickly became viral on the Internet. Gold and silver in this distance went to Italians Antonella Palmisano and Valentina Trapetti.