Luigi Beccali

Luigi Beccali

Luigi Beccali (born November 19, 1907 in Milan , † August 29, 1990 in Daytona Beach , Florida , USA ) was an Italian middle-distance runner and Olympic champion .

Career

As a teenager, Beccali was fascinated by cycling and athletics and only specialized in the latter after getting Dino Nai as a trainer. From 1928 to 1931 he was Italian champion over 1500 meters four times in a row. At the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, he won the gold medal in the 1,500-meter run , ahead of the Briton Jerry Cornes (silver) and the Canadian Phil Edwards (bronze). At the award ceremony, he was the first athlete to return the honor with the fascist greeting.

In 1933 he set Jules Ladoumègue's world record and then improved it to 3: 49.0 minutes. Towards the end of the year he also set a new world record over 1000 yards with 2: 10.0 minutes . In 1934 he won the gold medal at the European Athletics Championships in Turin . But he could not repeat this success at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, but only achieved the bronze medal, behind New Zealander Jack Lovelock (gold) and the American Glenn Cunningham (silver).

At the European Championships in 1938 he was also third, this time behind the British Sydney Wooderson (gold) and the Belgian Joseph Mostert (silver). He also won the Italian championships over 1500 meters in 1934 to 1938 and in the 5000 meter run in 1935. In 1941 he ended his career. Since he was a road surveyor, he had the opportunity to train twice a day. On the basis of the endurance of his cycling sport and extensive training, he was one of the medium-distance runners outside Finland with the greatest amount of training in the pre-war period.

When he started in the United States of America, Beccali saw the professional opportunities there and after the war he emigrated to the USA, where he lived in Florida as an importer of Italian wines until his death in 1990 .

Luigi Beccali died on August 29, 1990 in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Web links

• Luigi Beccali in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Footnotes

1. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/be/luigi-beccali-1.html on . December 12, 2016
2. ↑ Arnd Krüger : Many roads lead to Olympia. The changes in training systems for medium and long distance runners (1850–1997) . In: N. Gissel (Hrsg.): Sporting performance in change . Czwalina, Hamburg 1998, pp. 41-56.