Enrico Porro

Enrico Porro (1919)

Enrico Porro (born January 16, 1885 in Lodi Vecchio , † March 14, 1967 in Milan ) was an Italian wrestler . He was Olympic champion in London in 1908 in the Greco-Roman style in the lightweight.

Career

Enrico Porro spent his childhood mainly with his grandparents in Cuvio (VA). In the daily scuffle or test of strength with the other village youth, he acquired the physical strength and dexterity he later needed for wrestling. Enrico Porro then went to sea as a teenager and spent some time in Buenos Aires , Argentina . However, he returned to Milan. He began wrestling in Milan and was a member of the Italia Milano and Pro Patria Milano sports clubs . In 1902, in Legnano , he won a wrestling tournament in the Greco-Roman style that was sponsored by the newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport , the style he only wrestled. At the age of 18 he was drafted into the Navy for five years. Most of the time he spent on board the destroyer Castelfidardo in La Spezia .

In 1905 he was the first Italian master in Greco-Roman. Featherweight style. He won this title five times in his career. In 1908 he started for the Italian team at the Olympic Games in London in Greco-Roman. Style. Although he weighed just under 60 kg (featherweight), he had to compete in a lightweight (up to 66.6 kg body weight) because the wrestling competitions in Greco-Roman. Style only began with the lightweight. It was all the more surprising that Enrico Porro overcame the weight disadvantage compared to most of his competitors without any problems, because he became Olympic champion in the lightweight in London with four victories. In the final battle he defeated Nikolai Orlow from Russia , who was about 7 kg heavier, on points.

Enrico Porro was unable to take part in the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm because of an accident at work in which he suffered burns on one hand. During the First World War, he was stationed in Paris for a few years and took part in a championship of the Allied troops in Joinville in 1919 , finishing 2nd in the featherweight class.

After Enrico Porro became Italian lightweight champion for the fifth time in 1920, he was sent to the Olympic Games in Antwerp that year . There he won the featherweight over Gottfried Svensson from Sweden , but surprisingly lost to the Belgian Alexandre Boumans on the shoulder, with which he was eliminated. A classification took place in these games only in places 1 to 4. Enrico Porro would have taken 10th place according to the then generally applicable rules.

Four years later, Enrico Porro, although 39 years old, competed again at the Olympic Games in Paris . He started again in featherweight, but lost in his fights against M. Capron from France and Erik Malmberg from Sweden. With these results he landed in 18th place.

Enrico Porro was not at the start in other international championships. He died in great honor after a long and serious illness at the age of 82.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, GR = Greco-Roman style, Fe = featherweight, at that time up to 60 kg or 62 kg, Le = lightweight, at the OS in London up to 66.6 kg)

• 1906, 1st place , Central European Championship in Milan , GR, Le, ahead of Giuseppe Defendi a. Anceleto Monti, bde. Italy ;
• 1908, gold medal , OS in London , GR, Le, with victories over Jozsef Téger, Hungary , Gustaf Malmström , Sweden , Axel Persson, Sweden a. Nikolai Orlov , Russia ;
• 1920, 10th place , OS in Antwerp , GR, Fe, with a victory over Gottfried Svensson , Sweden a. a loss to Alexandre Boumans, Belgium ;
• 1924, 18th place , OS in Paris , GR, Fe, after defeats against M. Capron, France a . Erik Malmberg , Sweden

Italian championships

Enrico Porro was Italian master in Greco-Roman in 1905, 1906, 1909, 1910 and 1920. Featherweight style.

literature

• Documentation of FILA's International Wrestling Championships. 1976.

Web links

• Portrait of Enrico Porro (Italian)
• Enrico Porro in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )