Athletics Olympic 200m champion Livio Berruti has died at the age of 87. His 1960 world record heroics will forever be remembered in Italy and across the world.
Italian athletics Olympic Champion Livio Berruti has died at the age of 87. Berruti passed away after an illness in his home town of Turin.
Berruti made history at his home Olympics in Rome, winning the 1960 games 200m gold medal. Adding to his achievement was his time, which equalled the world record at the time.
The unforgettable moment came on the 3rd of September 1960 at a sold-out Olympic Stadium in Rome. The Italian who was sporting dark sunglasses matched the world record as early as the semi-finals with his time of 20,5, achieving the same feat in his gold-worthy performance in the final.
Berruti made history in another way as well, as that day he became the first European to win the 200m gold at an Olympic Games. He was close to yet another medal at the same games, but sadly for him and the home crowd Italy's 4x100m relay team had to settle for fourth place.
Born in 1939, Berruti still made appearances at the Tokyo 1964 and Mexico 1968 Games, where his best result was a fifth place finish in Mexico's 200m race.
The treasured national hero is honoured by the Italian team at the
Athletics European Championships 2026, as the whole team will be wearing mourning ribbons to honor Europe's first 200m Olympic champ.
The 2021 100m Olympic champion, Berruti's fellow countryman
Lamont Marcell Jacobs has told that he's dedicating his runs at the European Championships in Birmingham to Berruti. The final of the men's 100m will take place tonight on Tuesday at 21:47 UK time.
You can watch Berruti's 1960 Rome Olympics heroics via the video below.
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