Damilano, Maurizio

Damilano was born in a sports family of walkers. His older brother Sandro is a trainer in the field of walking, and his twin brother Giorgio is also a walker, a participant in the Moscow Olympics (11th place).

Maurizio Damilano began his international career in 1978 at the European Championships in Prague , where he took sixth place in walking for 20 kilometers.

At the Olympics in Moscow, the Italian had no equal and he won with an Olympic record of 1: 23: 35.5, bypassing the nearest pursuer - Petr Pochenchuk for more than a minute. A year later, Damilano, speaking in the rank of Olympic champion, won the Universiade in Bucharest and became vice-champion of Europe in the room.

At the 1984 Olympics, the Italian was close to defending the champion's title, but despite the fact that he showed time better than at the Moscow Games, Damilano lost to the two Mexicans in a bitter struggle and became a bronze medalist. At the same games, Maurizio started at a non-core distance of 50 km, but could not get to the finish line.

In 1987, at the home world championships in Rome, Damilano first became the world champion and was one of the favorites of the Olympics in Seoul . As in Los Angeles, the Italian intervened in the fight for medals and again finished in third position, winning the second “bronze” of the Olympic Games.

At the World Championships in Tokyo, the Italian defended the title of the strongest on the planet, but at his fourth Olympics, the thirty-five-year-old walker was left without a medal - in Barcelona he finished fourth.

In 1992, in Cuneo , he set a world record at the non-Olympic distance of 30,000 m (2: 01: 44.1). As of 2015, this result is not surpassed.

• Maurizio Damilano - profile on the IAAF website
• Maurizio Damilano - Olympic statistics at Sports-Reference.com