Gerardo Conforti

Gerardo Conforti was an Italian rider. His early sporting passion was for football while he attended Napoli’s military college at Nunziatella. By the mid-1920s he had taken up riding and show jumping and began winning international horse shows. In 1934 he won at Sanremo on Claudine, while in 1936, aboard Saba, he won the Gran Premio Roma at Roma’s Piazza di Siena.

Conforti was named to the 1936 Berlin Olympic team and competed in 1948 at London, both times in show jumping. In between Olympic appearances, he helped Italy win the Nations Cup in 1942 at Roma and they repeated this victory in 1944.

After World War II Conforti became commander of the Pre-Olympic Military Equestrian Center in Montelibretti near Roma, a facility that included hundreds of horses, civil and military personnel, stables and sheds. He retired from competitive jumping after the London Olympics.