today 09 03

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today 09 03
today 09 03

3 September 1960
Livio Berruti wins Gold in the Rome 1960 Olympics 200m Men’s Final
He was 21 at the time, studying Chemistry at Padua University (he went on to graduate). His shortsightedness meant that he had to wear glasses, sunglasses of course, to be able to see the end of the track.
With a time of 20”5 he equalled the then World Record and became the first European to win the 200m title after years of North American supremacy. He put it down to "the robustness of my ankles, tempered in hours of skating and tennis". Over sixty years later Usain Bolt’s Olympic Record stands at 19”30, and the all non-European final at the 2024 Paris Olympics was won in 19”46. But just for the record, the only other European that would have beaten Berruti in the semifinals this year was another Italian, Desalu, with a time of 20”37. Another point to remember is that Berruti was running prior to the first synthetic track surfaces that were to come in for the Tokyo Olympics four years later.
The Italian Olympic Committee gave him 1,200,000 lire (about €19,000 today) in prize money, and a Fiat 500.
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Taken on: January 16, 2024
Groups appears in:   • Roma città eterna    • Olympic Central    more » • Sports Illustrated    • "Sports & Games"    • A ROMA IERI    • All That Is Rome!!!    • Roma what else?    « less
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