Italy national bobsleigh team

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Italy
Association Federazione Italiana Sport Invernali
Team colors 
Olympics
Appearances22 (first in 1924 )
Medals Gold medal.svg Gold: 4
Silver medal.svg Silver: 4
Bronze medal.svg Bronze: 4

Italy national bobsleigh team is the selection that represents Italy in international bobsleigh competitions.

Contents

The Italian bobsleigh's body is traditionally painted with the rosso corsa , the international auto racing colour informally assigned to Italy.

History

Two-men bobsleigh of the Italian Air Force national team Centro Sportivo Aeronautica Militare - 1.jpg
Two-men bobsleigh of the Italian Air Force national team

The sport of bobsleigh began to spread in Italy at the beginning of the 20th century, especially in Trentino and Veneto, where Federico Terschak introduced it in Cortina d'Ampezzo. In 1922, the first Italian bobsleigh championship was organised along the road of Falzarego Pass, while the following year Raffaele Zardini built the bobsleigh track in Ronco. [1]

The Italian bobsleigh team debuted at the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix with the five-man bobsleigh. [2]

In 1925 the Bob Club of Italy was founded, which the following year established the Italian Ice Sports Federation (Federazione italiana sport del ghiaccio, FISG), which also included the Italian Skating Federation (Federazione italiana di pattinaggio) and the Italian Ice Hockey Federation (Federazione italiana di hockey sul ghiaccio). [1]

At the 1930 World Bobsleigh Championships in Caux-sur-Montreux, first edition of the event organised by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, the Italian national bobsleigh team won the gold medal with the four-man bobsleigh team of Franco Zaninetta, Giorgio Biasini, Antonio Dorini and Gino Rossi. [1]

In 1933 the FISG was incorporated into the Italian Winter Sports Federation (Federazione Italiana Sport Invernali, FISI); in the same year the Mottarone bobsleigh track was built on the initiative of Luigi Tornielli, in view of the World University Championships. [1]

Italy-2 team at 4-man event in Cortina 1956 (silver medal) Italia II - bob a quattro (Cortina 1956).jpg
Italy-2 team at 4-man event in Cortina 1956 (silver medal)

After World War II, the Italian Winter Sports Federation turned to the Italian Air Force to look for future Italian bobsleighers among fighter pilots, imitating the US strategy: after a special course, Marshal Lamberto Dalla Costa and Major Giacomo Conti were chosen and took part in the FIBT World Championships 1953 in Garmisch. The debut of Eugenio Monti, known as the "Flying Red" (Rosso volante), who dominated the world bobsleigh scene in the 1950s and 1960s, dates back to these years. The first Italian successes were achieved at home at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, where, thanks to their excellent knowledge of the Olympic track and the innovative Podar bobsleighs, the Italian national team won the gold and silver medals in the two-man bobsleigh and the silver in the four-man bobsleigh. [3] [2]

Italian Army bobsleigh in Cervinia (1974) Miani-1974-CERVINIA-Corso-piloti-1.jpg
Italian Army bobsleigh in Cervinia (1974)

After the extraordinary olympic success at Cortina, and the subsequent opening of the Blue Lake bobsleigh run in Cervinia in 1963, the Italian Air Force became increasingly interested in the sport and its acceleration on bends, which was useful for training its pilots. A 'bobsleigh school' was opened, renamed in 1965 as the 'Armed Forces Bobsleigh School', to train pilots, interiors and brakemen. [4] In 1973, Italy's national military team was formed, which took part in the first edition of Military World Bobsleigh Championships in Cervinia.

After a break of more than 30 years, the Air Force Sports Centre resumed winter sports activities in 2012 so that its athletes could take part in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. [5]

Participation in the Winter Olympics

Italian two-man bobsleigh (2014) Bobseligh (12515578243).jpg
Italian two-man bobsleigh (2014)

The Italian national bobsleigh team has always taken part in at least one discipline at every Winter Olympics (except at Squaw Valley in 1960, when the organising committee did not organise any bobsleight competitions for economic reasons), winning a total of 12 Olympic medals. [2]

Italian women made their debut with the two-woman bobsleigh at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, while in Turin 2006 they won their first and so far only medal. [2]

The largest number of Olympic medals (six) was won by Eugenio Monti, [2] known as the Rosso volante ('Flying Red'), in whose memory the Olympic track in Cortina d'Ampezzo was named.

Men's four-man bobsleigh

YearCityResultsTeam
1924Chamonix6
NQ
Lodovico Obexer, Massimo Fink, Paolo Herbert, Giuseppe Steiner, Luis Trenker
Luigi Tornielli di Borgolavezzaro, Adolfo Bocchi, Leonardo Bonzi, Alfredo Spasciani, Alberto Visconti
1928St. Moritz21Giancarlo Morpugo, Carlo Sem, Luigi Cerutti, Giuseppe Crivelli, Piero Marchetti
1932Lake Placid5Theo Rossi Di Montelera, Agostino Lanfranchi, Gaetano Lanfranchi, Italo Cassini
1936Garmisch-Partenkirchen10
NQ
Tonino Brivio Sforza, Carlo Solveni, Emilio Dell'Oro, Raffaele Menardi
Francesco De Zanna, Ernesto Franceschi, Uberto Gillarduzzi, Amedeo Angeli
1948St. Moritz6
11
Nino Bibbia, Gian Carlo Ronchetti, Edilberto Campadese, Luigi Cavalieri
Nino Rovelli, Enrico Airoldi, Vittorio Folonari, Remo Airoldi
1952Oslo10
14
Dario Colombi, Dario Poggi, Sandro Rasini, Alberto Della Beffa
Uberto Gillarduzzi, Michele Alverà, Vittorio Folonari, Luigi Cavalieri
1956Cortina d'Ampezzo2 Gold medal olympic.svg
5
Eugenio Monti, Ulrico Girardi, Renzo Alverà, Renato Mocellini
Dino De Martin, Giovanni De Martin, Giovanni Tabacchi, Carlo Da Prà
1964Innsbruk3 Bronze medal olympic.svg
4
Eugenio Monti, Sergio Siorpaes, Benito Rigoni, Gildo Siorpaes
Sergio Zardini, Sergio Mocellini, Ferruccio Dalla Torre, Romano Bonagura
1968Grenoble1 Gold medal olympic.svg
6
Eugenio Monti, Luciano De Paolis, Roberto Zandonella, Mario Armano
Gianfranco Gaspari, Giuseppe Rescigno, Andrea Clemente, Leonardo Cavallini
1972Sapporo2 Silver medal olympic.svg
8
Nevio De Zordo, Adriano Frassinelli, Corrado Dal Fabbro, Gianni Bonichon
Gianfranco Gaspari, Roberto Zandonella, Mario Armano, Luciano De Paolis
1976Innsbruck11
12
Nevio De Zordo, Ezio Fiori, Roberto Porzia, Lino Benoni
Giorgio Alverà, Piero Vegnuti, Adriano Bee, Francesco Butteri
1980Lake Placid11Andrea Jory, Edmund Lanziner, Georg Werth, Giovanni Modena
1984Sarajevo8
17
Guerrino Ghedina, Stefano Ticci, Paolo Scaramuzza, Andrea Meneghin
Alex Wolf, Georg Beikircher, Pasquale Gesuito, Umberto Prato
1988Calgary10
19
Alex Wolf, Pasquale Gesuito, Georg Beikircher, Stefano Ticci
Roberto D'Amico, Thomas Rottensteiner, Paolo Scaramuzza, Andrea Meneghin
1992Albertville12
15
Pasquale Gesuito, Antonio Tartaglia, Paolo Canedi, Stefano Ticci
Günther Huber, Marco Andreatta, Thomas Rottensteiner, Marcantonio Stiffi
1994Lillehammer9
22
Günter Huber, Antonio Tartaglia, Bernhard Mair, Mirco Ruggiero, Stefano Ticci
Pasquale Gesuito, Paolo Canedi, Silvio Calcagno, Marcantonio Stiffi
1998Nagano14
20
Günther Huber, Antonio Tartaglia, Massimiliano Rota, Marco Menchini
Fabrizio Tosini, Andrea Pais de Libera, Enrico Costa, Sergio Chianella
2002Nagano19 Fabrizio Tosini, Andrea Pais de Libera, Massimiliano Rota, Giona Cividino
2006Turin11
12
Fabrizio Tosini, Luca Ottolino, Antonio De Sanctis, Giorgio Morbidelli
Simone Bertazzo, Samuele Romanini, Matteo Torchio, Omar Sacco
2010Vancouver9T Simone Bertazzo, Danilo Santarsiero, Samuele Romanini, Mirko Turri
2014Sochi18 Simone Bertazzo, Simone Fontana, Samuele Romanini, Francesco Costa
2018Pyeongchang27 Simone Bertazzo, Simone Fontana, Francesco Costa, Lorenzo Bilotti
2022Beijing15
27
Patrick Baumgartner, Lorenzo Bilotti, Eric Fantazzini, Alex Verginer
Robert Gino Mircea, José Delmas Obou, Alex Pagnini, Mattia Variola

Men's two-man bobsleigh

YearCityResultsTeam
1932Lake Placid6
8
Theo Rossi Di Montelera, Italo Cassini
Agostino Lanfranchi, Gaetano Lanfranchi
1936Garmisch-Partenkirchen11
12
Edgardo Vaghi, Dario Poggi
Tonino Brivio Sforza, Carlo Solveni
1948St. Moritz6
8
Mario Vitali, Dario Poggi
Nino Bibbia, Edilberto Campadese
1952Oslo10
12
Alberto Della Beffa, Dario Colombi
Uberto Gillarduzzi, Luigi Cavalieri
1956Cortina d'Ampezzo1 Gold medal olympic.svg
2 Silver medal olympic.svg
Lamberto Dalla Costa, Giacomo Conti
Eugenio Monti, Renzo Alverà
1964Innsbruck2 Silver medal olympic.svg
3 Bronze medal olympic.svg
Sergio Zardini, Romano Bonagura
Eugenio Monti, Sergio Siorpaes
1968Grenoble1 Gold medal olympic.svg
12
Eugenio Monti, Luciano De Paolis
Rinaldo Ruatti, Sergio Mocellini
1972Sapporo4
10
Gianfranco Gaspari, Mario Armano
Enzo Vicario, Corrado Dal Fabbro
1976Innsbruck8
16
Giorgio Alverà, Franco Perruquet
Nevio De Zordo, Ezio Fiori
1980Lake Placid14
16
Andrea Jory, Edmund Lanziner
Giuseppe Soravia, Georg Werth
1984Sarajevo7
9
Guerrino Ghedina, Andrea Meneghin
Marco Bellodis, Stefano Ticci
1988Calgary17
19
Alex Wolf, Georg Beikircher
Ivo Ferriani, Stefano Ticci
1992Albertville5
12
Günther Huber, Stefano Ticci
Pasquale Gesuito, Antonio Tartaglia
1994Lillehammer3 Bronze medal olympic.svg
9
Günther Huber, Stefano Ticci
Pasquale Gesuito, Antonio Tartaglia
1998Nagano1T Gold medal olympic.svg
14
Günther Huber, Antonio Tartaglia
Fabrizio Tosini, Enrico Costa
2002Salt Lake City8
11T
Günther Huber, Antonio Tartaglia
Cristian La Grassa, Fabrizio Tosini
2006Turin9
13
Simone Bertazzo, Matteo Torchio
Samuele Romanini, Fabrizio Tosini
2010Vancouver17
AC
Fabrizio Tosini, Sergio Riva
Simone Bertazzo, Samuele Romanini
2014Sochi14 Simone Bertazzo, Simone Fontana
2018PyeongchangNot attending
2022Pechino21 Patrick Baumgartner, Robert Gino Mircea

Women's two-woman bobsleigh

YearCityResultsTeam
2002Salt Lake City7 Gerda Weissensteiner, Antonella Bellutti
2006Turin3 Bronze medal olympic.svg
12
Gerda Weissensteiner, Jennifer Isacco
Jessica Gillarduzzi, Fabiana Mollica
2010Vancouver13 Jessica Gillarduzzi, Laura Curione
2014Sochinot attending
2018Pyeongchangnot attending
2022Beijingnot attending

Women's monobob

YearCityResultsTeam
2022Beijing15 Giada Andreutti

Olympic medals

BobsleighGoldSilverBronzeTotal
2-man3227
4-man1214
2-woman0011
Totals (3 entries)44412

Olympic medalists

Eugenio Monti, the 'Flying Red', won 6 olympic medals. Eugenio monti.jpg
Eugenio Monti, the 'Flying Red', won 6 olympic medals.
BobsledderGoldSilverBronzeTotal
Eugenio Monti 2226
Luciano De Paolis 2002
Günther Huber 1012
Mario Armano 1001
Giacomo Conti 1001
Lamberto Dalla Costa 1001
Antonio Tartaglia 1001
Roberto Zandonella 1001
Renzo Alverà 0202
Romano Bonagura 0101
Gianni Bonichon 0101
Corrado Dal Fabbro 0101
Nevio De Zordo 0101
Adriano Frassinelli 0101
Ulrico Girardi 0101
Renato Mocellini 0101
Sergio Zardini 0101
Sergio Siorpaes 0022
Jennifer Isacco 0011
Benito Rigoni 0011
Gildo Siorpaes 0011
Stefano Ticci 0011
Gerda Weissensteiner 0011

See also

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References

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Bibliography