Franco Menichelli

Franco Menichelli (born August 3, 1941 in Rome ) is a former Italian artistic gymnast . The 1964 Olympic champion was one of the few gymnasts who could keep up with the Soviet and Japanese athletes in the 1960s.

Career

Menichelli trained from 1958 under the Swiss Olympic champion Jack Günthard . At the age of 19 he took part in the 1960 Olympic Games in his hometown of Rome. He won two bronze medals: on the ground and with the team. At the European Championships in 1961, he won the floor exercise. In 1962 at the gymnastics world championship he was third on the floor. At the European Championship in 1963, he defended his title on the ground.

In Tokyo at the 1964 Olympic Games , he won gold on the floor, silver on the rings and bronze on the bars. In December 1965 Menichelli won the Italian championship in all- around for the fourth time in Varese . At the European Championships in 1965, he won the twelve fight, on the horizontal bar and on the rings; on the ground he became European champion for the third time in a row. In 1967 he won silver again on the floor. In the 1968 Olympic Games, he could not take part due to injury.

Menichelli was the first floor gymnast to wear shorts in order to have more freedom of movement. After his career, he finished his sports studies. In 1972 he became the coach of the Italian national team. In 2003 he was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame .

A gymnastics element was named after him, which he had shown for the first time in Rome in 1960: a one-legged flick- flop in which the legs are spread across.

His brother Giampaolo Menichelli (* 1938) was a professional footballer at AS Roma and Juventus Turin and took part with Italy in the 1962 World Cup in Chile .

Placements

• 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome
  • 10th place in the twelve fight
  • 3rd place on the ground
  • 3rd place with the team

• European Championship 1961 in Luxembourg
  • 1st place on the ground
  • 2nd place in the horse jump behind Giovanni Carminucci
  • 3rd place on bars

• World Championship 1962 in Prague
  • 3rd place on the ground

• European Championship 1963 in Belgrade
  • 1st place on the ground
  • 3rd place on bars

• 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo
  • 5th place in the twelve fight
  • 1st place on the ground
  • 2nd place on the rings behind Takuji Hayata
  • 3rd place on bars
  • 4th place with the team

• European championship 1965 in Antwerp
  • 1st place in the twelve fight
  • 1st place on the ground
  • 1st place on the rings
  • 1st place on the horizontal bar
  • 2nd place on bars behind Miroslav Cerar

• World Championship 1966 in Dortmund
  • 3rd place on the ground
  • 3rd place on the rings

• European Championship 1967 in Tampere
  • 3rd place in the twelve fight
  • 2nd place on the ground behind Lasse Laine
  • 2nd place on the parallel bars behind Mikhail Voronin
  • 3rd place on the horizontal bar

literature

• Erich Kamper , Bill Mallon : Who's Who of the Olympic Games 1896–1992. Who's Who at the Olympics. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 1992, ISBN 3-928562-47-9 .
• Volker Kluge : Summer Olympic Games. The Chronicle II. London 1948 - Tokyo 1964. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-328-00740-7 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Nouvelliste du Rhône of December 14, 1965 , p. 6. (French)

Web links

• Franco Menichelli in the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame (English)
• Franco Menichelli in the database of the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (English)
• Franco Menichelli in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Menichelli as a gymnastics element , video from filmsortiment.de on youtube.de