Ezio Gamba

Ezio Gamba
nation	Italy, Russia
birthday	2nd December 1958
place of birth	Brescia, Italy
size	175 cm
Weight	71 kg
job	Judo trainer
Career
status	not active

Ezio Gamba (born December 2, 1958 in Brescia ) is a former Italian judoka . The 1980 Olympic champion usually competed in the lightweight class (up to 71 kilograms).

The 1.75 m tall gamba won four pre-Olympic tournaments in 1976, but then retired early in the Olympic judo tournament . The member of the Carabinieri won the military world championships in 1976 and 1978. In between he won the Italian championships in 1977. At the European Championships in 1979 he was only defeated in the final against the Briton Neil Adams . Half a year later, Gamba lost to the Japanese Kyoto Kazuki in the final of the World Championships . In the summer of 1980 Gamba then won the final of the Olympic Games in Moscow against Neil Adams.

Two years after his Olympic victory , he won the 1982 European Championships in Rostock against Karl-Heinz Lehmann from the GDR. At the European Championships in 1983, the French Richard Melillo won the final against Gamba. At the World Championships in October 1983, the Japanese Hidetoshi Nakanishi won , Gamba won World Cup silver for the second time after 1979. Gamba also reached the final at the 1984 Olympic Games , where he was defeated by the South Korean Ahn Byeong-keun . Gamba won his last major international medal at the 1986 European Championships when he received bronze.

After his sporting career, Gamba became a trainer , he trained for a long time in Italy and from 2009 he was the trainer of the Russian judoka, which made their breakthrough to the top of the world at the 2012 Olympic Games .

On January 8, 2016, Gamba received Russian citizenship in Sochi before a joint training session with Vladimir Putin .

Web links

• Ezio Gamba on Judoinside (English)
• Ezio Gamba in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Footnotes

1. ↑ Three Olympic Gold Medals in judo put Russia on the map at London 2012 (English, accessed December 30, 2014)
2. ↑ Putin trains with Russian judo selection. Sputnik Germany, January 8, 2016, accessed January 9, 2016 .