Milan, 9 August (LaPresse) – Farewell to Livio Berruti, Olympic champion at the 1960 Rome Games. “The sporting world mourns the passing of Livio Berruti. Olympic champion in the 200 metres at the 1960 Rome Games, the Piedmontese sprinter has passed away at the age of 87,” reads a statement on the CONI website. It was a September afternoon in 1960 when a young chemistry student from Piedmont, who had moved to Rome after graduating from a classical grammar school in his hometown of Turin, managed to captivate and turn the world on its head. Standing in the starting blocks wearing sunglasses, the 21-year-old became the ‘angel’ of the Rome Games by winning the 200-metre title. It was an epic moment in Italian sport – and not just because, for the first time, a European athlete had won the Olympic title over that distance, ending the dominance of North American sprinters. Berruti took part in two further editions of the Olympic Games, in 1964 and 1968, narrowly missing out on a second Olympic medal with the men’s 4×100 relay team. In 1969, he retired from competition: having ended his sporting career, he remained the undisputed benchmark for sprinting technique, but he built a new life for himself, working first for an advertising agency before being hired by Ermenegildo Zegna. In the 1970s, he moved to Fiat, where he remained until 1998. In 2006, for the Turin Games, he was entrusted with the task of carrying the Olympic flag during the closing ceremony of the XX Winter Olympic Games.
Athletics: Livio Berruti, Olympic champion at the 1960 Rome Games, has died
Milan, 9 August (LaPresse) – Farewell to Livio Berruti, Olympic champion at the 1960 Rome Games. “The sporting world mourns the passing of Livio Berruti. Olympic champion in the 200 metres at the 1960 Rome Games, the Piedmontese sprinter has passed away at the age of 87,” reads a statement on the CONI website. It was a September afternoon in 1960 when a young chemistry student from Piedmont, who had moved to Rome after graduating from a classical grammar school in his hometown of Turin, managed to captivate and turn the world on its head. Standing in the starting blocks wearing sunglasses, the 21-year-old became the ‘angel’ of the Rome Games by winning the 200-metre title. It was an epic moment in Italian sport – and not just because, for the first time, a European athlete had won the Olympic title over that distance, ending the dominance of North American sprinters. Berruti took part in two further editions of the Olympic Games, in 1964 and 1968, narrowly missing out on a second Olympic medal with the men’s 4×100 relay team. In 1969, he retired from competition: having ended his sporting career, he remained the undisputed benchmark for sprinting technique, but he built a new life for himself, working first for an advertising agency before being hired by Ermenegildo Zegna. In the 1970s, he moved to Fiat, where he remained until 1998. In 2006, for the Turin Games, he was entrusted with the task of carrying the Olympic flag during the closing ceremony of the XX Winter Olympic Games.