Nicola Tempesta

Along with Bruno Carmeni, Nicola Tempesta represented Italian judo at its début at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. He was eliminated early after one win and one defeat.

Born in 1935, he started judo at age 15 in 1950 in Roma with the Partenope Sports Club. Tempesta won five Italian titles (1960-62, 1964-65) and two European titles (Rotterdam 1957, Milano 1961). Reaching the level of 9th Dan, he competed for the last time in Praha on 25 May 1970 at the Czechoslovakia-Italy match. After his career ended he became an international referee from 1968, and from 1969 he was technical director of the Italian national team.

Tempesta had a strong bond with professor Sergio Fati and his experience learning from him at Enaoli, helped them educated and train a group of orphans in judo, many of whom later became top judoka. Married to Elvira and father of four, he passed away in February 2021 after years of struggling with health issues.