Pasquale Passarelli

Piotr Michalik , Viktor Piwowarow and Pasquale Passarelli 1977

Pasquale Passarelli (born March 14, 1957 in Gambatesa , Italy ) is a former German wrestler .

Life

Pasquale Passarelli lived in Ludwigshafen am Rhein from the age of six . There he began wrestling as a sport at the age of eleven, which was also practiced by his brothers Thomas (nine-time German champion) and Claudio (world champion 1989).

The bantamweight (up to 57 kg) wrestling in the Greco-Roman style achieved his first national successes in 1974 and 1975 when he was the German youth champion in the Greco-Roman. Style in the class up to 56 kg body weight and his first major international success in 1977 with 3rd place at the Junior World Championships.

His first German senior title followed the following year. This was followed by the title wins in 1979 and 1981. In that year he also secured the world and European championship titles for the first time and was elected Wrestler of the Year and awarded the Silver Laurel Leaf .

Highly decorated in this way, he moved in 1982 from KSV Wiesental to Nuremberg to SV St. Johannis 07, which was then fighting in the 2nd Bundesliga . With the team he was promoted to the 1st Bundesliga in 1985, at the same time he remained successful as an individual athlete and won further championship titles in 1982, 1983 and 1984. After relegation in 1988 from the 1st Bundesliga Passarelli left the Johanniser.

"The Bridge" at the 1984 Olympic Games

Pasquale Passarelli celebrated his greatest triumph at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles . In the final he defeated the Japanese Masaki Eto. Passarelli resisted Eto's attempts to shoulder him with a bridge for 85 seconds . This extraordinary performance by Passarelli has made this Olympic wrestling final into a legend.

Passarelli's hard-won triumph was also honored with the election of Wrestler of the Year and the Silver Laurel Leaf . He also received the Golden Camera . When ZDF let viewers vote for the athletes of the century in 2004, Pasquale Passarelli took 92nd place - ahead of celebrities like Günter Netzer , Ricco Groß or Sabine Braun .

Trainer

Passarelli was from 2001 to 2005 coach of the wrestler in the Greco-Roman area of KSV 1952 Berghausen in the second Bundesliga South. He is a real estate agent by profession.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, all competitions in the Greco-Roman style (GR), bantamweight, featherweight, at that time up to 57 kg or 62 kg body weight)

year	space	competition	Weight class
1975	6th	Grand Prix of the Federal Republic of Germany in Aschaffenburg	Bantam	behind Hans-Jürgen Veil , Federal Republic of Germany , Krasimir Stefanow, Bulgaria , Ion Dulica, Romania , Fritz Huber , Federal Republic of Germany a. Ernst Hack , Austria
1977	3.	Junior World Championship	Bantam	behind Vladimir Piwopapow, USSR a . Jan Michalik , Poland
1978	7th	EM in Oslo	Bantam	with victories over Kuratli, Switzerland a . Aviid, Denmark et al. Defeats against Josef Krysta , CSSR a . Einari Suutari, Finland
1978	3.	World Cup in Mexico City	Bantam	with victories over George Apostolon, Canada , Jaques Eysackers, Belgium , Josef Krysta u. Mihai Boțilă , Romania a. Defeats against Ivan Frgić , Yugoslavia a . Shamil Serikov , USSR
1979	2.	EM in Bucharest	Bantam	with victories over Michel Mercader, France , Gyula Molnar, Hungary , Josef Krysta, Haralambos Holidis , Greece a . Guergi Donew, Bulgaria a. a loss to Shamil Serikov
1979	4th	World Cup in San Diego	Bantam	with victories over Dan Kun-Park, Korea , Florea Auram, Romania, Kiwamu Kashinagi, Japan , Haralambos Holidis u. Piotr Michalik , Poland a. a loss to Shamil Serikov
1980	4th	EM in Prievidza	Bantam	with victories over Marin Atanassow, Bulgaria, Jaroslaw Svaldenak, Czechoslovakia a. Witali Konstantinow , USSR a. Defeats against Árpád Sipos , Hungary a. Benni Ljungbeck , Sweden
1980	3.	Championship of the EC countries in Sönderborg	Bantam	behind Ilpo Seppälä , Finland a. Benni Ljungbeck u. before Morten Brekke, Norway, Gilles Jalabert, France a. Carlo Fanelli, Italy
1981	1.	EM in Gothenburg	Bantam	with victories over Julien Mewis, Belgium , Haralambos Holidis, Stojan Bulow, Bulgaria, Nicolae Zamfir , Romania, Piotr Michalik u. Shamil Serikov
1981	1.	World Cup in Oslo	Bantam	with victories over Ilja Rostowzew, USSR, Antonio Caltabiano , Italy, Benni Ljungbeck, Ronny Sidge, Norway a. Josef Krysta u. despite a loss to Ilpo Seppelä
1984	2.	EM in Jönköping	Bantam	with victories over Benni Ljungbeck, Ernst Graf, Switzerland , Ilpo Seppelä, Antonio Caltabiano u. Frank Wohlgemuth, GDR; for the final fight against Kamil Fatkulin , USSR, Passarelli could no longer compete because of an injury (capsule tear in the shoulder)
1984	gold	OS in Los Angeles	Bantam	with victories over Bahena, Mexico , Severino, Dom. Rep. , Mehmet Karadag, Turkey , Nicolae Zamfir, Frank Famiano, USA a . Masaki Eto , Japan ( 8-5 point win after Passarelli stood in the bridge for 1 minute and 25 seconds)

German championships

year	space	style	Weight class
1976	2.	GR	Bantam	behind Fritz Huber , Witten u. in front of Wilhelm Barie, Aschaffenburg
1978	1.	GR	Bantam	before Hans Huber , Witten a. Fritz Huber
1979	1.	GR	Bantam	before Antonio Jannaccone , Aalen a . Dieter Roos, Erbach
1980	2.	GR	Bantam	behind Rolf Krauss , Schifferstadt u. before Jürgen Lutterer, Freiburg
1981	1.	GR	Bantam	before Rolf Krauss u. Jürgen Lutterer
1982	1.	GR	Bantam	before Rolf Krauss u. Jürgen Lutterer
1983	1.	GR	Bantam	before Stefan Kurz u. Jürgen Lutterer
1984	1.	GR	Bantam	before Jürgen Lutterer u. Antonio Jannaccone

Web links

Commons : Pasquale Passarelli  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Profile of Pasquale Passarelli at the Institute for Applied Exercise Science
• Olympic final 1984 as WMV ( Memento from January 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
• Interview with Pasquale Passarelli about Olympic victory in 1984

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Pasquale Passarelli ( Memento from November 20, 2005 in the Internet Archive ), portrait at zdf.de, 2005
2. ↑ Dirk Schmidtke: 25 years ago: The quarter century of the Passarelli brothers ( Memento from November 19, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) in: NOK Report 04/2003
3. ↑ Wrestling - German Championships (Greco-Roman - Men - Part 1) on sport-komplett.de (status: January 28, 2006) (also for the other German championship titles)
4. ↑ nordbayern.de: A golden rain for the region - Claudia Losch, Pasquale Passarelli and Karlheinz Radschinsky celebrated their greatest successes on September 20, 2009, 25 years ago
5. ↑ sv-johannis07.de:… our greatest successes and the most important milestones , undated, undated
6. ↑ 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles the Golden Bridge Pasquale Passarelli GER - Eto JPN on youtube.com
7. ^ History of the KSV Berghausen
8. ↑ Jürgen Bröker: “I just didn't want to give up” , one day July 24, 2008