Giuseppe Gentile

Giuseppe Gentile was the great-grandson of the famous philosopher and education minister, Giovanni Gentile. Gentile set his first Italian record (16.17) in 1965, and during the Italy v. Poland match in 1968 he improved both the Italian long jump (7.91) and triple jump (16.74) records.

Gentile’s greatest moment was at the Mexico City Olympics, where he broke the world record in qualifying with a leap of 17.10. The following day, in the final, he did even better with his first jump, recording 17.22 (no wind assistance), but was beaten by the Russian Viktor Saneyev and the Brazilian Nélson Prudêncio, who both bettered Gentile’s world mark, but with wind assistance of +2.0 m/s.

Gentile continued for several years but never found his true potential again following the Mexico City Olympics. He later entered the movie business and in 1969 played the role of Jason, alongside Maria Callas, in the film Medea, directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. He refused other films because he considered them of lesser quality.

Gentile also held various management positions in several Italian sports federations. In 2012 he wrote the book “La medaglia (con)divisa” in which he retraced his extraordinary personal story.

Personal Best: TJ – 17.22 (1968).