Goodbye to Livio Berruti. After a period of illness, the Olympic champion of the 200 meters in Rome 1960 died at the age of 87 in a Turin clinic. Ansa learned this from sources close to the family. Berruti leaves behind his wife Silvia. The funeral will be private. After his competitive career he worked in the world of communication. In 2006 he was one of the eight Italian bearers of the Olympic flag at the closing ceremony of the Winter Games in Turin, his city.
Born in Turin on 19 May 1939, Berruti discovered athletics in 1955 at the Cavour high school, becoming the fastest in the institute. He hoped – as Fidal recalls in his biography – to be able to practice his beloved tennis by attending the Lancia sports centre, but the results in the speed races pushed him to insist on athletics. Only a few years later he became an Olympic champion, the first European sprinter to triumph in this race. It all happened on 3 September 1960 at the Olympic Stadium in Rome: in just two hours he ran the semi-final in 20.5, equaling the world record, then winning the final in the same time ahead of the American Lester Carney (20.6) and the Frenchman from Senegal Abdou Seye (20.7).
With the victory in Rome he obtained 800 thousand lire from CONI for the gold medal, 400,000 lire for the world record and a ‘500’ gift from Fiat. At the Tokyo Olympic Games, four years later, he ran the same distance on the uncomfortable first lane, finishing fifth and still first of the Europeans (20.83), in the race won by American Henry Carr in 20.36. Livio Berruti’s name is on one of the plaques on the Walk of Fame of Italian sport in Rome, identified by CONI to celebrate the legends who have made the history of Italian sport.