In 2017, Spanish matador Iván Fandiño tragically lost his life after being gored by a bull during a festival in southwest France.
The incident took place at the Aire-sur-l’Adour bullfighting event. Fandiño, 36 years old and an experienced matador, became tangled in his cape, causing him to lose his footing.
Fandiño, from Spain’s Basque Country, had been a professional matador for over ten years. He was known for taking on bulls considered too dangerous by others. On the day of the accident, he had already participated in a previous fight before stepping into the ring again.
During the fight, Fandiño fell after tripping over his cape. As he lay on the ground, the bull charged and gored him in the torso. The nearly half-ton bull’s horn pierced several vital organs, including his lungs.
Though he was still conscious when carried out of the arena, Fandiño was bleeding heavily. Witnesses later recalled his final words: “Hurry up, I’m dying.” Unfortunately, he suffered a heart attack on the way to the hospital.
Juan del Álamo, a fellow matador who later killed the bull, expressed his disbelief: “I can’t believe it. None of us understand how it could have happened; it was all so fast. The bull knocked him down with its hindquarters, and he fell face down.”
Fandiño had been injured in the past. In 2014, he was knocked unconscious in Bayonne, France, and in 2015, a bull tossed him into the air in Pamplona, Spain. His death shocked the bullfighting world, marking the first matador fatality in France in nearly a century. The last was Isidoro Mari Fernando in 1921.
Following his death, tributes poured in from Spain, including one from King Felipe VI, who called Fandiño a “great bullfighting figure.” Despite its controversy, bullfighting remains legal in both France and Spain, although calls for a ban continue.