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Pietro MenneaItalian athlete, politician
Date of Birth: 28.06.1952
Country:  Italy |
Content:
- Biography of Pietro Mennea
- Early life and Sports Career
- Olympic Achievements
- Political Career and Later Life
Biography of Pietro Mennea
Italian athlete, politicianPietro Mennea was an Italian politician and former athlete. He is widely known as the champion of the 1980 Moscow Olympics in the 200-meter race, and his world record in this distance remained unbroken for 17 years.
Early life and Sports Career
Pietro Mennea was born in Barletta, Italy. He started his international sports career in 1971 when he won his first of 14 major sports prizes in the 100/200-meter races. He also won two prizes in indoor races, this time in the 60/400-meter category, and five gold medals at the Mediterranean Games. Mennea participated in the 4x100 relay at the European Championships, where he secured a third-place finish.
Olympic Achievements
Mennea's first Olympic Games were in 1972, where he finished in the top three in the 200-meter race, placing behind Valeriy Borzov and Larry Black. In the 1974 European Championships, he won another gold medal in his favorite distance, the 200 meters. Mennea also performed well in the 100-meter races and the 4x100 relay, winning silver medals in both events, with Borzov claiming first place once again.
Political Career and Later Life
The Olympic season of 1976 did not go as planned for Mennea, and he even contemplated skipping the Games. However, due to public pressure, he eventually competed in Montreal. Mennea finished fourth in the 200-meter race and the Italian team also claimed fourth place in the relay. In 1977, he narrowly missed winning the 200 meters in Düsseldorf, losing to Clancy Edwards by a small margin, which had to be determined by a photo finish.
In 1978, Mennea successfully defended his title as the best European runner in the 200 meters and also won the 100-meter race. The following year, he won the European Championship in the 100 meters again, but this time he fell short in the 200 meters, with Allan Wells taking the gold. Around the same time, Mennea ventured into politics and enrolled in university to study political science. His student status allowed him to compete in the World University Games, where he set a new world record in the 200-meter race with a time of 19.72 seconds in Mexico City. This record stood for 17 years, and Mennea also set another record on the same distance with a time of 19.96 seconds in his hometown of Barletta. Both records coexisted due to the different altitude levels of the two tracks, with Mexico City being significantly higher above sea level than Barletta.
After the official announcement of the American boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, Mennea automatically became one of the main favorites in the sprint competitions. He reached only the semifinals in the 100 meters, but performed much better in the 200 meters, surpassing both Allan Wells and Don Quarrie. In 1983, Mennea set another record in the 150-meter race. Soon after, he announced his retirement from athletics, but made a comeback first at the World Championships in Helsinki and then at the Olympic Games. Mennea became the first athlete in the world to reach the final of the Olympic 200-meter race four times in a row. However, he couldn't improve on this achievement as he failed to qualify for the final in his fifth Olympic Games.
From 1999 to 2004, Mennea served as a member of the European Parliament for the Democratic Party. However, he was not re-elected for a new term in 2004.
