Ubaldo Bianchi

Ubaldo Bianchi represented the club Libertas from his hometown Pistoia. In track and field, he specialized in javelin throw. In 1913, he was the first ever champion in this event at official Italian championships organized by the Italian Federation of Athletics Federazione (FIDAL), where field events were not included until 1913. He won both events, the freestyle as well as the standard javelin throws, setting a new national record of 38.56 m in the latter. Six years later, he took another medal taking silver in the standard javelin throw.

His primary sport, however, was wrestling. From 1911-13, Bianchi won three consecutive Italian championships in the under 80 kg division. In 1911, 1912 and 1914 he also triumphed in the open division. Furthermore, he finished second in 1917 and third in 1914 in the over 80 kg division and another second in the open championship in 1913. His best year ever was 1914, when he won several prestigious cups in addition to the open championship. In Italy, he remained almost unbeaten until 1919. In 1918 he also became wrestling and gymnastics instructor to Prince Aimone of Savoy, later Duke of Aosta and Spoleto and – as Tomislav II – titular king of the short-lived kingdom of Croatia.

Bianchi subsequently turned professional and became the middleweight world champion in Wien (Vienna) in 1920. In 1924, he moved to Al-Iskanderiya (Alexandria) in Egypt where he founded an Italian Gym together with his brother and became coach of the Egyptian national team of wrestling and weightlifting. He held this position until 1940 coaching, for instance, Olympic gold medallists Ibrahim Moustafa and Sayed Nosseir. In 1930 he also coached the Italian national team and the Club Sportivo Audace in Roma, a club for which he had already competed as an active wrestler in the 1910s.

Nevertheless, he continued to compete himself and won the world middle-heavyweight title in 1925 and retained it undefeated until his retirement. His last bout was in 1937 at the age of 47. That same year, Bianchi also proposed to hold Mediterranean Games, an idea which did not materialize until 14 years later.

During World War II, as a citizen of Axis powers living in Egypt all his possessions were confiscated and he was interned in a camp. He was rehabilitated after the war and was later awarded a Gold Medal for Sporting Valor by the Egyptian King Faruq I in recognition of the excellent results (one gold and two bronze medals) achieved by his team at the 1950 World Greco-Roman Wrestling Championship held in Stockholm.