Avio Lucioli

Avio Lucioli was an Italian hammer thrower and in the years when the event in Italy was dominated by Teseo Taddia (winner of 14 national titles between 1939-56), Firenze’s Lucioli threatened that dominance in 1952. He started that season with a personal best of 49.35, and after having gone over the 50 m barrier many times in training, soon set more personal bests of 51.01, 51.28, and then 53.17 in the first meet of the season. In June that year, Lucioli went on to beat Taddia. At the Helsinki Olympics, in what was the only major tournament of his career, Lucioli was eliminated in the qualifying round with only 48.74. That was one of 13 appearances he made for the national team between 1952-63.

Lucioli had little success throughout the remainder of the 1950s, except in 1958 when he won his only Italian title with 57.73, winning by just 32 cm from Silvano Giovannetti, Italy’s best thrower for a few seasons, and Angelo Sagnella. Before eventually ending his competitive career, Lucioli still managed to finish runner-up in the Italian Championships three years in succession, 1960-62.

Personal Best: HT – 59.45 (1958).