Francesco De Zanna

Francesco De Zanna was an Italian bobsledder and ice hockey player with Austrian citizenship. He was born in Cortina d’Ampezzo when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but in 1918, following the end of the World War I, Cortina passed to the Kingdom of Italy.

De Zanna was active at a competitive level from the early-1920s to the mid-1950s. He participated at the 1936 Winter Olympics, then took part in four world championships between 1938 and 1955, when he achieved his best World Championship finish, fourth in the two-man bob at Sankt Moritz with Luigi Figoli. Domestically, De Zanna won three national two-man titles (1930, 1933, 1938) and seven four-man titles (1924, 1930, 1932-34, 1938-39). As a hockey player, he won the Italian title in the 1931/32 season, and was active for many years with the Hockey Sportivi Ghiaccio Cortina.