Giuseppe Maddaloni

Maddaloni with the Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in October 2000.

Giuseppe "Pino" Maddaloni (born July 10, 1976 in Naples ) is a former Italian judoka . He was Olympic champion in 2000 and European champion in 1998 and 1999.

Maddaloni started in the lightweight until 2003 and then rose to the light middleweight division.

Maddaloni has fought in international tournaments since 1995, and in 1996 he was U21 World Champion. In 1997 he won bronze at the European Team Championships with the Italian team. In the same year he was Italian champion. In 1998 he defeated Andrei Golban from the Republic of Moldova in the final of the European Championships . As in the previous year, he won bronze at the European team championships. In the final of the European Championships in 1999 he defeated the Estonian Aleksei Budõlin . The Italians again won bronze at the European Team Championships. At the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney , he defeated the Latvian Vsevolods Zeļonijs in the quarter -finals, the Belarusian Anatol Larukou in the semifinals and the Brazilian Tiago Camilo in the final , winning against all three other medalists on the way to the gold medal.

In the final of the European Championships 2001 Maddaloni lost to the Ukrainian Hennadij Bilodid . With the team he won the European title in 2001. In 2002 he was defeated at the European Championships in the quarterfinals Vsevolods Zeļonijs, in the battle for bronze he defeated Gennadij Bilodid. At the team world championships, the Italians won the bronze medal in 2002.

After two weaker years and promotion to the light middleweight division, the Italian won the 2005 Mediterranean Games and the World Military Championships. In 2006 he was defeated in the final of the European Championships to the Belarusian Siarhei Shundzikau . At the Judo World Championships in 2007 he finished fifth after five wins and two defeats. At the Judo European Championships in 2008 he was only defeated by the Latvian Konstantins Ovcinnikovs and then fought his way up to the bronze medal. In his second Olympic participation in Beijing in 2008 , he won only one fight and finished in 13th place.

After his career, the 1.72 m tall Maddaloni coached the Italian juniors and later the national team.

Web links

• Giuseppe Maddaloni in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Giuseppe Maddaloni on judoinside.com