Picardi, Vincenzo

Vincenzo Picardi was born on October 20, 1983 in the city of Casoria , province of Naples . He began to actively engage in boxing in early childhood, trained at the local sports club “Nino Ferrari” under the guidance of his own father Antonio, then, having shown decent results at the junior level, he joined the capital club “Fiamme di Oro”, where he was trained by coaches Giulio Michele and Caldarella Colette. The first serious success in the ring was achieved in 2003, when he first won the Italian youth championship and then the adult in the flyweight category - from that moment he gained a foothold in the main team of the national team. A year later, he again became the champion of the national championship and wanted to break into the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens , but at the qualifying competitions in Gothenburg he took only third place and thus was left without the Olympics.

Picardi's debut at the international level took place in 2005, at the Mediterranean Games in Almeria, where he managed to reach the stage of quarter finals. Also during this period, for the first time, he took part in the World Cup standings, defeated Japanese Tosiyuki Igarashi , the future world champion among professionals, at competitions in Mianyang, but was subsequently knocked out by Azerbaijani Samir Mammadov . The next season he boxed at the European Championships in Plovdiv, but in his first match he met again with Mamedov and again lost to him. In 2007, he won a bronze medal at the European Union Championships in Dublin and went to the world championship in Chicago, from where he also brought a bronze dignity award (in the semifinal, with a score of 2:13, he lost to Thai Somchit Chongchokhor ). In addition, for the fourth time he won the Italian title.

Thanks to a series of successful performances, Picardi was awarded the right to defend the country's honor at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing - he again went to the Chongchokhor in the semi-final and this time lost to him 1: 7. Having received a bronze Olympic medal, he continued to enter the ring as part of the national team, taking part in major international tournaments ^[1] . So, in 2009, he won bronze at the Mediterranean Games in Pescara, while at the home world championship in Milan he stopped at the quarter-finals when the Mongol Nyambayaryn Togstsogt got the upper hand. A year later, he won a bronze medal at the European Championship in Moscow, and lost to the Russian Misha Aloyan in the semifinals . In 2011, he took one more bronze of the European Championship, again having been defeated by the representative of Russia - George Balakshin . He finished the season with a speech at the World Cup in Baku, had high hopes for this tournament, but could not get into the number of winners, lost to Jasurbek Latipov from Uzbekistan in the quarterfinals.

In 2012, Picardi qualified for the London Olympics , however, failed here, in his only match at the tournament with a slippery score of 16:17, he lost to the Mongol Nyambayaryn, whom he had previously met several times. At the European Championship in 2013, Russian Hovik Hovhannisyan stood in his way, but at the Mediterranean Games in Mersin, the Italian managed to take second place and received a silver award. Starting from the 2010/2011 season, Vincenzo Picardi has regularly played for the Italian team Milano Thunder (now Dolce and Gabbana Italy Thunder) in the WSB semi-professional league. In the seasons 2011/2012 and 2012/2013, the team twice entered the playoffs with his participation. One of his most striking victories in this field is his victory over European champion from Ireland John Joe Nevin .

• Vincenzo Piccardi (link unavailable) (English) - page on the official website of Dolce & Gabbana Italia Thunder
• Vincenzo Piccardi - Olympic Statistics at Sports-Reference.com
• Vincenzo Piccardi (Eng.) - Statistics on performances on the website of the International Amateur Boxing Association
• Statistics of semi-professional fights (inaccessible link)