Obit of the Day

Obit of the Day: Most Decorated Athlete in the History of the Olympics

Edoardo Mangiarotti won his first Olympic gold medal as part of Italy’s épée team at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. At 17, he was the youngest medalist at the Games. Mangiarotti would participate in every Games that followed (excluding the 1940 and 1944 Games that were cancelled due to World War II) ending his athletic career after the 1960 Rome Games. When everything was totaled up he had accumulated 13 Olympics medals (six gold, five silver, and two bronze). When his world championship medals were included, Mangiarotti had earned 39 medals, more than any other athlete in any Olympic sport.*

Mangiarotti was the son of an Olympic fencer (1908 London) and the brother of two more: Dario, who won the silver in épée in 1952 - Edoardo won gold - and Carola who participated, but did not medal, in the 1976 and 1980 Olympics.

Although his career as an athlete ended in 1960, he would continue to attend the Games in a variety of roles. By the time he passed away on May 25, 2012 at the age of 93, Edoardo Mangiarotti had attended 17 consecutive Summer Games from Berlin through Beijing. Sadly he missed the London Olympics Games by only 63 days.

(Image courtesy of Sport e Motori 2.0)

* The record for most individual Olympic medals earned is held by Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina who earned eighteen over three Summer Olympics: Melbourne-1956, Rome-1960, and Tokyo-1964. American swimmer Michael Phelps has 17 medals but also has the most gold medals with fourteen.