1960 Olympic 200m champion Berruti dies

Livio Berruti wins the 1960 Olympic 200m title (© Hulton / Getty Images)

World Athletics is saddened to hear that Italy’s 1960 Olympic 200m champion Livio Berruti died on Sunday (9) at the age of 87.

Berruti produced one of the defining performances of the Rome Olympic Games, equalling the world 200m record twice on 3 September 1960. He first clocked 20.5 in the semi-finals before matching that time in the final later that day. In doing so, Berruti became the first athlete from outside North America to win the Olympic men’s 200m title.

Just 21 at the time and studying chemistry, Berruti’s victory in front of a home crowd at Rome’s Olympic Stadium made him one of the biggest sporting figures in Italy and delivered the country its first Olympic sprint title. He narrowly missed out on a second medal at those Games when Italy finished fourth in the 4x100m.

Born in Turin on 19 May 1939, Berruti discovered athletics while at school in 1955, having initially hoped to pursue tennis. He quickly emerged as one of Italy’s leading sprinters and, at the inaugural Universiade in his home city in 1959, won gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m. He later added another Universiade relay title in Tokyo in 1967.

Berruti was also a leading 100m runner. In 1960 he clocked 10.2, setting an Italian record and equalling the European record. He won the Italian 100m and 200m titles in each of the six seasons from 1957 to 1962, and added two further national 200m titles in 1965 and 1968.

He competed at three Olympic Games. Four years after his triumph in Rome, he returned to the 200m final at the Tokyo Games and finished fifth, while also helping Italy reach the 4x100m final. At his third Olympics in Mexico City in 1968 he reached the 200m quarter-finals and was again part of Italy’s 4x100m team, which finished seventh.

His international career ultimately spanned more than a decade and included 41 appearances for Italy. Berruti retired from competitive athletics in 1969, completed his studies in chemistry and went on to work in public relations. He nevertheless remained closely connected to athletics and a revered figure within Italian sport.

In April 2024, ahead of the European Championships in Rome, and more than six decades after his Olympic triumph, Berruti met members of Italy’s relay squad at the renovated Stadio dei Marmi, alongside the Olympic Stadium where his 1960 victory had made him a national sporting icon.