Natale Rea

Natalino Rea was Italy’s most successful boxing coach, leading the Italian team to 13 Olympic medals under his watch. Rea had a short amateur career himself, winning Italian lightweight titles in 1936-37. In 1939 he was chosen by selector Steve Klaus, an American of Hungarian ethnicity, to assist him with coaching the Italian national team.

In 1957 Rea became the Italian head coach and led Italian boxers to 7 medals at the Roma Olympics, including 3 golds. At Tokyo in 1964 they won 5 medals with 2 golds. At the 1963 Mediterranean Games Italy won 8 gold medals and 10 medals, reaching the podium in every weight class, and in 1967 they again starred at the Mediterranean Games, with 6 golds, and 9 medals. Rea remained the Italian national coach until his 1979 retirement.