Primo Nebiolo, the great leader from Turin and inventor of the Universiade, would have been one 100 years old today.
Born on 14 July 1923, Primo Nebiolo was also the creator of the World Athletics Gala. He has been one of the most brilliant and influential sports managers not only in Italy but in the whole world. President of the Turin University Sports Center from 1947 to 1999, he launched the Universiade there in 1959 as an alternative and additional event to the Olympics. He had understood the new role that university students were playing on the international stage, as agents of change.
Following the 1968 Olympics, the 1970 edition of the Universiade, again in Turin, became very famous for its unique atmosphere of freedom and community spirit.
In 1980, the first edition of the World Athletics Gala took place in the splendid setting of the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, with the aim to allow all athletes to participate in the same event – on the very same year of the Moscow Olympic Games’ boycott by the US athletes. The brilliancy of Nebiolo’s ideas, as well as his vivid intelligence and great diplomatic wisdom will be remembered later this year at an international conference to be held in November in Rome.
Nebiolo’s sport leadership in Turin resulted in the creation of many events in the heart of the Piedmont capital such as the Cross Country World Championships in 1997 or the World Athletics Race Walking Cup of March in 2002. Primo Nebbiolo is also at the origin of the Universiade debut in China, in Beijing in 2001, which was followed by those of Harbin (Winter, 2009), Shenzen (Summer, 2011) and now Chengdu, from 28 July to 8 August.
“The 14th of July is a very important date for me and for the whole CUS family. Primo Nebiolo personally taught me to love sports, especially university sports, and allowed me to have extraordinary experiences. If today I am myself a passionate sport manager, loving and promoting our university system nationally and internationally, it is thanks to him,” said Riccardo D’Elicio, CUS Torino President.