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The Olympic Dictionary P

PACE DARRELL (archery, USA, b. Cincinnati, Ohio, 23/10/1956). Three appearances (1976, 1984, 1988), 2 gold medals (individual 1976 and 1984) and one silver (team 1988). 1976 1-0-0, 1984 1-0-0, 1988 0-1-0. When he was 13 he bought a bow: the pack included a coupon for a free lesson. He went for the lesson, and continued, paying for more, and at the age of 16 he was the youngest member of the US team at the World Championships, where he came 23rd. He won his first gold medal with the massive lead of 69 points over Japanese Michinaga and, after USA’s boycott of Moscow 1980, he won another gold medal in , 52 points ahead of his long- time rival, McKinney (also USA). He came 9th, just missing the final, in Seoul 1988, where he won silver behind South Korea in the first Olympic team contest; he was a reserve at 1992, and an injury prevented him from attempting to qualify for Atlanta 1996. In the World Championships he won 2 gold medals (1975-79) and 2 individual silvers, plus 5 gold medals and 2 silver medals for team events; he won 7 national titles. His world records include a score of 1.341 points set in 1979, beaten by one point by Ukrainian Zabrodsky 10 years later. His displays included a William Tell type performance in New York’s Central Park: he asked a volunteer to hold an apple in his hand, Josh Howell from the ABC TV channel stepped forwards, and Pace hit the apple from 30 yards (27 metres), and then the arrow centred the bull’s eye of the target behind the journalist. Right after, the cameraman went up to Howell and said: “Sorry Josh, I didn’t manage to film the scene. Would you mind doing it again?” In 2004, Pace was elected president of the US Federation.

PAHUD DES MORTANGES CHARLES FERDINAND (equestrian, Netherlands, b. The Hague 13/5/1896, d. Leiden 8/4/1971). Four appearances (1924, 1928, 1932, 1936), 4 gold medals (individual 3 day event 1928 and 1932, team 3 day event 1924 and 1928) and one silver (team 3 day event 1932). 1924 1-0-0, 1928 2-0-0, 1932 1-1-0. A lieutenant in the Royal Dutch Hussars, he won his first medal riding Johnny Walker in the team event in 1924, and the other 4 riding Marcroix. He continued his military career, reaching the rank of general. He was captured by the Nazis in 1942, escaped, and became second in command of the Dutch Army during the Second World War. Later he was president of the Netherlands Olympic Committee (1946-51 and 1958-61) and member of the IOC (1946-64).

PAKISTAN (Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Asia, capital Islamabad, area 796.096 km2, population 163.902.407). 10 medals: 3 gold, 3 silver, 4 bronze. Best Olympics: Rome 1960, one gold and one bronze. Best sport: field hockey, with 3 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze medals. Most decorated athlete: 7 players have won one gold and 2 silver medals in field hockey: Munir Ahmad Dar, Abdul Hamid, Anwar Ahmad Khan, Hussain Atif Mansoor and Mutih Ullah (gold in 1960, silver in 1956 and 1964), and Mohammad Asad Malik and Anwar Saeed (gold in 1968, silver in 1964 and 1972). The Olympic Committee, formed in 1948, received IOC recognition in the same year: from then on it has taken part in all the Olympics except 1980.

PALAU (Republic of Palau, Oceania, capital Melekeok, area 488 km2, population 20.314). The Olympic Committee, formed in 1997, received IOC recognition in 1999. It took part in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics. Yet to win a medal.

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PALESTINE (Asia, theoretical area about 6.200 km2, population 4.017.496). An Olympic Committee, preceding that of Israel, was formed in 1933 and recognised the following year by the IOC, but Palestine did not take part in the Olympics until the 1990s. In 1993, immediately after the agreements with Israel, the IOC granted new temporary recognition of Palestine’s O.C., and the country took part (with a total of 6 athletes) in the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Games, without winning any medals.

PALUSALU KRISTJAN JURI (wrestling, , b. Saulepi 10/3/1908, d. Tallinn 17/7/1987). One appearance (1936) and 2 gold medals (freestyle 87 kg and Greco-Roman 87 kg). Four years after Ivar Johansson (q.v.), he repeated the Swede’s feat by winning a gold medal in freestyle (on 3 August, in the first round, he won the deciding match against the Czechoslovakian Klapuch, silver, followed by four more victories on 4 August) and another in Greco-Roman (one victory on 6 August, one on the 7th, one on the 8th which was the deciding match against Swede Nyman, silver, and the last two matches on 9 August) in the same Olympics (which in his case was his first competition abroad). Therefore, Palusalu shares with Ivar Johansson and Källe Anttila the distinction of having won Olympic gold in both styles of wrestling. Born as Trossmann, he changed his surname in 1935. In 1937 he won a European gold in Greco-Roman, and in 1938 he injured a shoulder, putting an end to his competition career. A year after the Soviet Union’s occupation of Estonia, in 1941, he was sent to a labour camp in Kotlas, Russia. He escaped, was recaptured and sentenced to death: the sentence was repealed, but Palusalu was sent to the front to fight the Finnish forces. He crossed the enemy lines, shouting, according to some reports, “Finnish boys do not shoot Estonians”. He was imprisoned again, this time in Finland, and was then allowed to return to Estonia, where he was arrested by the Germans, who then freed him in an exchange of prisoners. In 1991 he was voted best Estonian athlete of the 20th century.

PAMICH ABDON (track & field, Italy, b. Fiume, Istria, now Rijeka, Croatia, 3/10/1933). Five appearances (1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972), one gold medal (50 km walk 1964) and one bronze (50 km walk 1960). 1960 0-0-1, 1964 1-0-0. After his 4th place in Melbourne 1956 (“Up until 2 days before it was 16°, but the day of the race it was 42° in the shade. It was a sort of grill, and we were the kebabs”) and the bronze medal that he won in 1960 in Rome, he won the gold in Tokyo in 4h11:12.4, 18.8 ahead of the British athlete Nihill, even though he had had to pause at the 38 km mark due to stomach problems: “At 25 km I took an ice-cold drink, the organisers hadn’t supplied thermoses, I drank that cold tea and my stomach seized up. After relieving myself behind a hedge, I was a new man”. In his very long career, in which he took part in two other Olympics (retired in 1968, disqualified in 1972), he won 2 gold medals (1962-66) and a silver (1958) in the European Championships, again in the 50 km walk, and 40 Italian titles (13 in the 10 km, 13 in the 20 km, 14 in the 50 km). In 1961 he set the best world performance for the 50 km walk, in 4h14:02.4. “In the 50 km you start young and finish old. It’s like crossing all the seasons of life”.

PANAMA (Republic of Panama, Central America, capital Panama, area 75.001 km2, population 3.343.374). 2 medals (the bronzes won by Lloyd LaBeach in the 100 and 200 metres in 1948). The Olympic Committee, formed in 1934, received IOC recognition in 1947. Panama sent one athlete to the 1928, 1948 and 1952 Games, and then from 1960, it missed just the 1980 Games.

PAPP LÁSZLÓ (, , b. Angyalföld 25/3/1926, d. Budapest 16/10/2003). Three appearances (1948, 1952, 1956) and 3 gold medals (middleweight 73 kg 1948, light middleweight 71 kg 1952 and 1956). 1948 1-0-0, 1952 1-0-0, 1956 1-0-0. He was the first boxer to win 3 Olympic gold medals: in 1948 he beat British boxer Wright on points in the final; moving down one category, in 1952, in the decisive match he beat van Schalkwyk (the turning point was a left hook in the 3rd round, which sent the South African down for an 8 count); and in 1956, winning again on points but this time with a split decision, he beat the American Torres (future professional middle

155 The Olympic Dictionary world champion). As an amateur he also won 2 gold medals in the European Championships (middleweight 1949, light middleweight 1951) and 11 Hungarian titles. The year after his third Olympic gold, he was the first Eastern European boxer to turn professional, and in 1962 he won the European middleweight title (Christensen TKO 7); but after successfully defending the title six times, in 1965 the Hungarian authorities denied him the chance of fighting for the world title. He ended his pro career unbeaten, with 27 victories (15 KO) and 2 draws. He went on to coach the Hungarian national team for over 20 years.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA (Independent State of Papua New Guinea, Oceania, capital Port Moresby, area 462.840 km2, population 6.331.017). The Olympic Committee, formed in 1973, received IOC recognition the following year: from 1976, it has taken part in all the Olympics except 1980. Yet to win a medal.

PARAGUAY (Republic of Paraguay, South America, capital Asunción, area 406.752 km2, population 6.127.073). One medal (the silver medal won by the men’s football team in 2004). The Olympic Committee, formed in 1970, received IOC recognition in that year. The country had already taken part in the 1968 Olympics, and since then has missed just the 1980 Games.

PARALYMPICS and The Paralympics or Paralympic Games are held every 4 years, generally in the same location as the Summer or Winter Games, and are governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC, www.paralympic.org). At an international level, in the history of the Olympics there are cases of disabled athletes who have succeeded in attaining prestigious results in contests open to all athletes, such as the American gymnast George Eyser (see note in Section II, The Modern Games, St. Louis 1904). The first competition for disabled athletes dates to 1948: they were the brainchild of Sir Ludwig Guttmann, a German neurologist born in 1899, who organized the first “Stoke Mandeville Games” at the hospital in Stoke Mandeville (Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, 60 km north-west of London) where people from Britain and other countries who had received spinal injuries during the Second World War were treated. But the first appearance of disabled athletes at the Games was organized in Rome 1960, prompted by the vice- president of INAIL (Istituto Nazionale Assistenza Invalidi del Lavoro, National Institute for the Care of Invalided Workers), Dr. Antonio Maglio, with a series of competitions officially named “Ninth International Stoke Mandeville Games”, reserved for athletes with spinal injuries. These Games saw the presence of 400 athletes from 23 countries, and they ran from 18 to 25 September, with 53 medals won by the British (19 gold) and 43 by the USA (but with 29 gold medals). In 1976 the first Winter edition was held in Oernskoeldsvik, ; from 1988 the Paralympics have been held in the same location as the Games open to all, both Summer and Winter, and from the 1996 Atlanta Games, mentally disabled people have also been admitted: at Athens 2004, a total of 3.969 athletes from 144 countries took part. During the Summer Games for all, two demonstrations of track & field events for disabled athletes in wheelchairs were held, the men’s 1500 m and the women’s 800 m. At Peking 2008, from 6 to 17 September the programme will include 20 events, with riding in Hong Kong and sailing in Qingdao, just as for the main Olympics, which ends 12 days before. has announced a team of 350-400 athletes representing the 80 million disabled people in the country. The categories are: amputees, brain-damaged, mentally disabled, wheelchair, athletes with impaired vision, and a fifth category including athletes not in the first 4 (mutism, multiple sclerosis, limb deformation caused by pharmaceuticals such as Thalidomide, etc.). After Peking, the criteria for admission will be completely reviewed by the IPC. A number of frauds have been recorded in the history of the Paralympics. As well as cases of doping, of which the first was in 1992, the most famous episode regards 2000, when Spain was stripped of its wheelchair basketball title after Carlos Ribagorda, an incognito journalist who was also part of the team, revealed that the intelligence quotient test (in these competitions, IQ must be lower than 70) had not been performed, in order to ensure that the team would be able to win the gold medal. Alongside the

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Paralympics, the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf, with IOC approval, runs the , which were initially called the World Championship Games for the Deaf, and which had been founded in 1924 as the International Games for the Deaf. The next Summer Deaflympics (the 21st) will be held in 2009 in Taipei, while the previous edition was held in 2005 in Melbourne. There is often confusion between the Paralympics and the : the latter are competitions run by the like-named organization created by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of the mentally disabled Rosemary Kennedy, to whom the event is dedicated. Initiated in 1962 with the name Camp Shriver, the Special Olympics became international in Chicago in 1968, while the first Winter event was held in 1977 in Colorado. Reserved for mentally disabled people, the organisation’s programme involves two and a half million athletes worldwide, and the Special Olympics is the only organisation authorised by the IOC to use the term “Olympiads”. Every year the Special Olympics organise competitions in 26 sports, involving 150 countries. The Extremity Games (the version for disabled people of the ) are action sports events for differently- abled individuals: they are reserved for athletes with limb loss or limb difference.

PARISI ANGELO (judo, England/, b. Arpino, Frosinone, Italy, 3/1/1953). Three appearances (1972, 1980, 1984), one gold medal (heavyweight >95 kg 1980 for France), 2 silvers (open 1980 for France, heavyweight >95 kg 1984 for France) and one bronze (open 1972 for Britain). Born in Italy, he emigrated to England at the age of 3 with his family, competed for Great Britain until 1975, then he married a French woman, and he was in the French team for his second and third Olympics. He won gold medal in Moscow, beating Bulgarian Zapryanov (ippon at 6:14), benefiting from the fact that the boycott had removed the two world champion Japanese judokas Endo (q.v.) and Yamashita (q.v.) from the competition. Four years later, he failed to beat another Japanese, Saito, for the gold medal, as he was penalized for passivity during the final, but that fourth medal meant that he had set a record in Olympic judo history. In the European Championships he won four individual titles (middle heavyweight 1972 for England, open 1977-83- 84 for France), plus 4 silvers and 2 bronzes.

PATTERSON FLOYD (boxing, USA, b. Waco, North Carolina, 4/1/1935, d. New Paltz, New Jersey, 11/5/2006). One appearance (1952) and one gold medal (middleweight 75 kg). He grew up on the streets, and spent 2 years (between the ages of 10 and 12) in a young offenders’ institution. When he was 17 he won a gold medal in Helsinki, beating Romanian Tita by KO in the final, after just 1:14 in the 1st round. He turned professional 48 days later, and in 1956, at the age of 21, he became the youngest world heavyweight champion (a record later broken by ) with a 5th round KO against , winning the title that had been left vacant by ’s retirement. After four successful defences, in 1959 he lost the title to Ingemar Johansson (TKO 3), but in the 1960 return match he became the first to reclaim the title (KO 5), only to lose it again in 1962 against (KO 1) before failing in another three attempts to win the crown against Liston (KO 1, 1963, (q.v., TKO 12, 1965) and Jimmy Ellis (on points, 15, 1968, for the WBA). His fights record: 55 victories (40 KO), 8 defeats and one draw. His adopted son Tracy Harris was WBC super bantamweight world champion from 1992 to 1994.

PATZAICHIN IVAN (canoeing, Romania, b. at “Mila 23” 26/11/1949). Five appearances (1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984), 4 gold medals (C2 1000 m 1968, 1980 and 1984, C1 1000 m 1972) and 3 silvers (C2 1000 m 1972, C2 500 m 1980 and 1984). 1968 1-0-0, 1972 1-1-0, 1980 1-1-0, 1984 1-1- 0. Born in a fishing village with 500 inhabitants, he won his first gold in the C2 1000 m with Serghei Covaliov in 1968 (just missing another gold in 1972, beaten by just three hundredths of a second by the Soviet crew Cesiunas-Lobanov), and then he won 2 golds with Toma Simionov in 1980 and 1984. He won his 1972 gold for single canoe with a considerable lead (3.46) over the Hungarian Wichmann. Appearing five times at the Games, only in Montreal did he fail to reach the podium, coming 5th in the C1 1000 m and 7th in the C1 500 m. In the World Championships he won

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8 gold (C1 1000 m 1973-77, C1 10.000 m 1978, C2 500 m 1979, C2 1000 m 1970-81-83, C2 10.000 m 1982), 4 silver and 10 bronze medals, and he won one European gold. He went on to become coach of the National team.

PAVESI ATTILIO (cycling, Italy, b. Caorso, Piacenza, 1/10/1910). One appearance (1932) and 2 gold medals (individual road race, team road race). In the trials for Olympic selection, he was leading the group when a woman threw a bucket of water at him and he fell. He came 5th, and so was not one of the four to qualify, and he left for the as a reserve, but the coaches saw that he was in good form and they decided to put him into the squad instead of Zaramella. They were right, because he won the individual race, a 100 km timed trial, 1:15.8 ahead of Guglielmo Segato (q.v., 2nd) and 1:42.6 ahead of Giuseppe Olmo (q.v., 4th behind Swede Britz), together with whom he also won the team gold, with their total time, 11:35 ahead of Denmark. The race took place on the -Los Angeles coast road: vehicular traffic had been reduced but not excluded, and each cyclist was followed by a policeman on a motorcycle. Pavesi started last: “I said to myself: either I catch Hansen or I burst”. He more than succeeded, because the Dane, who had started four minutes earlier, finished 13th, 7:45 behind Pavesi. Years later, Pavesi was in Argentina for a Six Day event when the Second World War broke out. He decided to stay in South America, opened a bicycle shop, married a daughter from a family of Piacenza emigrants, and organized many races, never losing his passion for his sport. “Once I went up into the Andes, on the border with Chile, because I had discovered that an Argentinean was importing San Pellegrino mineral water even though there were many natural springs in Argentina. I wanted to meet him. So I got on my bicycle and climbed up into the mountains”. At the time of going to press, he is the oldest living Italian Olympic champion.

PAVESI CARLO (, Italy, b. Voghera, Pavia, 10/6/1923, d. Vicenza 24/3/1995). Three appearances (1952, 1956, 1960) and 4 gold medals (team épée 1952, 1956 and 1960, individual épée 1956). 1952 1-0-0, 1956 2-0-0, 1960 1-0-0. He won the individual gold in Melbourne after a keenly-contested semi-final (3-sided barrage with Finn Wilk and Luxembourg Gretsch; the latter was eliminated) and another tie-break with two Italians, who, like him, had ended the final pool with five victories and two defeats. First barrage: Mangiarotti (q.v.) beat Pavesi who beat Delfino (q.v.) who beat Mangiarotti. Second barrage: Pavesi beat Mangiarotti, and then beat Delfino as well, achieving the decisive hit after 8 “doubles”. Edoardo Mangiarotti wrote in the Gazzetta: “We embraced him like a brother, happy that victory had smiled on him, he who can no longer be described as in the first flush of youth, and who has been in pursuit of a great result for many years”. He also won 3 team gold medals: in Helsinki, winning 17 assaults out of 25 (Italy took gold ahead of Sweden, beaten 8-5), in Melbourne, beating Hungary 9-3 (he achieved 16 victories and 6 defeats), and in Rome, 9-5 in the final against Great Britain (his total score was 10/6). In the World Championships he won 6 team gold medals (1950-53-54-55-57-58), one team silver medal, 2 individual silvers and one bronze; he won two individual Italian titles (1957-58).

PEDROSO SOLER IVÁN LAZARO (track & field, Cuba, b. Havana 17/12/1972). Four appearances (1992, 1996, 2000, 2004) and one gold medal (long jump 2000). He dominated the long jump at the World Championships, with 9 gold medals in outdoor (4, in 1995-97-99-2001) and indoor (5, in 1993-95-97-99-2001) events, but he won the Olympic gold medal “only” in 2000, bettering the Australian Taurima with 8.55 on his last jump. Taurima had jumped 8.49 in the previous round, but he seemed to be resigned to winning the silver: “I knew that he was going to beat me, he always wins that way”. In 1992, he came 4th, at 8.11, 23 cm away from the medals; in 1996 he finished 12th with just 7.75 due to tendon problems; and in 2004 he came 7th with 8.23. In 1995 he jumped 8.96 metres at Sestriere, with a windspeed calculated at 1.2 metres per second, and therefore within regulation limits: but the world record (+1 cm with respect to Mike Powell’s, 1991) was not validated by IAAF because a person was standing in front of the anemometer at the

158 The Olympic Dictionary moment of the jump. His validated personal record has therefore remained that of 8.71, also in 1995. He announced his retirement in 2007.

PEIRSOL AARON WELLS (swimming, USA, b. Irvine, California, 23/7/1983). Two appearances (2000, 2004), 3 gold medals (100 backstroke 2004, 200 backstroke 2004, 4x100 medley 2004) and one silver (200 backstroke 2000). 2000 0-1-0, 2004 3-0-0. His defeat at Sydney in the 200 backstroke, where he came 2nd, 59 hundredths behind Krayzelburg, was the only occasion on which he did not win over that distance for 7 years, up until when he was defeated by Lochte at the 2007 World Championships. In Athens he won the gold medal in the 4x100 medley (contributing to the world record time of 3:30.68), and a double in the 100-200 backstroke, in both cases winning ahead of Austrian Rogan: in the 100 he improved the world record to 53.45, while in the 200 there was a little apprehension about a disqualification for an invalid turn, later lifted. At the 2007 World Championships he was the first person to break the 53 second mark, at 52.98. He set 7 world records: 3 in the 100 backstroke, which was still standing in early 2008, and 4 in the 200 backstroke, the last being the 1:54.44 time attained in 2006, later improved by Lochte. In the World Championships he won 8 gold medals (200 backstroke 2001-03-05, 100 backstroke 2003-05-07, 4x100 medley 2003-05) and 2 silvers, plus 5 gold medals and one silver for short course events; he won 6 gold medals at the Pan-.

PÉREC MARIE JOSÉ (track & field, France, b. Basse-Terre, Guadalupe 9/5/1968). Three appearances (1988, 1992, 1996), 3 gold medals (400 m 1992 and 1996, 200 m 1996). 1992 1-0-0, 1996 2-0-0. Nicknamed “sugar cane” as a girl for her height and long legs, she started running for her high school in Guadalupe when she was 15, running the 60 m in 8 seconds dead. In 1984 she attended the French championships in , recording a remarkable time for the 200 m (24.12) and, after travelling back and forth between Guadalupe and France, she finally settled in Paris in 1988, and set a French 400 m record of 51.05: the same year she took part to her first Olympiad being eliminated in the quarter finals in 200 m. In 1990 she got a bronze in 400 m. In 1991, after having set national records in the 200 and 100 as well, she became world champion in the 400 m, with a time of 49.13. The following year at the Barcelona Games, she won the gold medal in the 400 m with 48.83. A triumph for the “black swan” of athletics, not just in sports, as she was in high demand in fashion magazines and television shows. In 1994 she won the 400 and the 4x400 relay at the European Championships, and in 1995 she once again won the 400 world title. At the 1996 Athens Olympics (she is the first to win twice 400 m in 2 Olympics) achieved a historic double: 200 and 400 m (22.12 and 48.25), a feat attained before her only by Valerie Brisco-Hooks (q.v.) in 1984 and, for men, only by Michael Johnson (q.v.), also in 1996. She sustained an injury before the 1997 World Championships, but decided to return to the track for Sydney 2000, enrolling for the Games, but opting at the last minute not to take part. She fled from claiming that she had received physical threats while at her hotel in Sydney. She returned to Guadalupe and retired from competition.

PERKINS KIEREN JOHN (swimming, Australia, b. Brisbane 14/8/1973). Three appearances (1992, 1996, 2000), 2 gold medals (1500 freestyle 1992 and 1996) and 2 silvers (400 freestyle 1992, 1500 freestyle 2000). 1992 1-1-0, 1996 1-0-0, 2000 0-1-0. At the age of 9, he crashed through a glass door while he was playing with his brother. He had to have 86 stitches in his left calf, and the doctors prescribed swimming for rehabilitation. In the Australian 1992 Trials he set the world record in the 1500 freestyle, and improved it in Barcelona where he won his first gold medal in 14:43.48. Two days before, even though his time was 1.31 lower than his own record, he came 2nd to the Russian Sadovyi (3:45 and 3:45.16) in the 400 freestyle. He was beaten by Kowalski in the 1996 Trials, and, though he qualified with only the 8th fastest time for the final in Atlanta, he nonetheless succeeded in winning another Olympic gold, finishing 6.03 ahead of his Australian rival. Then at Sydney in 2000, he was himself beaten by another “Aussie”, Hackett (q.v.), but that

159 The Olympic Dictionary silver enabled him to become the first person to win 3 medals in the 1.500 in the history of the Games. In the World Championships he won 2 gold medals (400 freestyle and 1500 freestyle 1994) and one silver; at the , 4 gold medals, one silver and one bronze; at the Pan Pacific Games, 7 gold and 2 silver medals. He set 8 world records: 2 in the 400 freestyle, 3 in the 800 freestyle and 3 in the 1500 freestyle. The times of 7:46 in the 800 and 14:41.66 in the 1500, set in the same race at the 1994 Commonwealth Games, were beaten only in 2001.

PERU (Republic of Peru, South America, capital Lima, area 1.285.216 km2, population 27.902.760). 4 medals: one gold, 3 silver. Best Olympics: London 1948, one gold. Best sport: shooting, one gold and 2 silvers. Best athlete: Edwin Vasquez Cam, shooting, gold in free pistol, 1948. The Olympic Committee, formed in 1924, received IOC recognition in 1936. An épée fencer, Carlos de Candamo, attended the 1900 Games, and from then on Peru has appeared at all Games since 1936 with the exception of the 1952 Olympics.

PESCANTE MARIO (CONI president and IOC member, Italy, b. Avezzano, L’Aquila, 7/7/1938). In 1973 Onesti (q.v.) nominated him secretary of CONI, and he became its president in 1993, a position that he held until 1998. He led the Italian delegation at five Summer and five Winter Olympics. In 1994 he was made a member of the IOC.

PETRUCCI GIOVANNI “GIANNI” (CONI president, Italy, b. Rome 19/7/1945). He started his career as a sport manager for the Italian Shooting Federation. In 1977 was elected general secretary of Italian Basketball Federation (Federazione Italiana Pallacanestro FIP) and in 1985 secretary of Italian Football Federation (Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio), office held until 1991. In 1992 became president of FIP, office that was confirmed in 1996. In 1994, he joined FIBA executive board (the Basketball International Federation). Elected as a member of the executive board of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) in 1997, he then became CONI president in 1999. He was elected again as president of CONI in 2001 (his office was confirmed also in 2005: a position he still holds since): under his guidance, the fifth from the post-war period and, until now, the third longer leadership after the Onesti’s and Carraro’s ones, the Italian Committee organized the 2006 Winter Games in Turin.

PEZZO PAOLA (cycling, Italy, b. Bosco Chiesanuova, Verona, 8/1/1969). Three appearances (1996, 2000, 2004) and 2 gold medals (mountain bike 1996 and 2000). 1996 1-0-0, 2000 1-0-0. Winner of Olympic gold medals in the first two appearances of the mountain bike in the Games, she began with cross-country skiing, reaching the national team and winning a second place in the 1986 Italian Young Championships behind Stefania Belmondo in the 7.5 km. She took up mountain bike in 1990, won 2 Italian titles in 1992-93 and quickly became one of the best riders in the world, winning the World Championship gold medal in 1993; she repeated this success in 1997, while in 1999 and 2000 she won bronze. She also won the European Championships titles in 1994, 1996 and 1999, and in 1997 she won the World Cup, winning 7 stages out of 10. Her fame reached its highest point when she won the Olympic gold medal in Atlanta, 1996: slowed by a fall in the first lap and a technical problem that forced her to run up a slope with the bicycle on her shoulder as in cyclo- cross, she nonetheless caught up with all her rivals, and she won well in the lead. The race also attracted comment because in the heat of the race Paola Pezzo unzipped her jersey to reveal a generous cleavage. “It was really hot, 40 degrees and 98% humidity. What else could I do? But next time I’ll keep everything shut in and the zip up!” She won another Olympic gold at Sydney in 2000, after the jury had rejected the appeal by Spaniard Margarita Fullama, who said that Paola Pezzo had struck her with her hand in the decisive stages of the race. The same year she abandoned mountain bike, but the Federation encouraged her to return to competition, and in 2004, at the age of 35, she appeared in the Athens Games, but retired after one and a half laps: “It was just not my day, …

160 The Olympic Dictionary women’s problems”. After her definitive retirement from competitive cycling, she dedicates her time to her “Team Paola Pezzo”, and has opened some mountain bike shops.

PHELPS MICHAEL FRED II (swimming, USA, b. Baltimore, Maryland, 30/6/1985). Two appearances (2000, 2004), 6 gold medals (100 butterfly 2004, 200 butterfly 2004, 200 medley 2004, 400 medley 2004, 4x200 freestyle relay 2004, 4x100 medley relay 2004) and 2 bronzes (200 freestyle 2004, 4x100 freestyle relay 2004). 2004 6-0-2. At his Olympic debut, in Sydney in 2000, when he came 5th in the 200 butterfly (0.033 from the podium), he was just 15, and he was the youngest swimmer in the USA Olympic team since 1932. Four years later, in Athens, he was already one of the best swimmers in the world, and he launched his challenge on (q.v.), who in 1972 had won 7 gold medals and 7 world records in swimming, and entered eight events, requiring competition in 17 races in 7 days. He missed gold just in the 200 freestyle, third behind Ian Thorpe (q.v.) and Peter van den Hoogenband (q.v.), and in the 4x100 freestyle relay, in which USA finished third behind South Africa and Netherlands. He was thus unable to win the million dollars that had been offered by an American company in the case that he had improved on Spitz’s 7 gold medals; however he had equalled another record, the gymnast’s Aleksandr Dityatin who had won 8 medals in one edition (1980). His first contact with the pool came at the age of 6, when he began swimming following the example of his elder sisters Hilary and Whitney. “The first time that I took him to the pool, he was crying and screaming”, said his mother Debbie, “he was afraid of the water and couldn’t put his head under. He discovered how to become a champion on his own”. In 1996 he joined the North Baltimore Aquatic Club and, under the guidance of Bob Bowman, he made rapid progress. His speciality was butterfly: on 30 March 2001, when he was just 15 years and 9 months old, he became the youngest record holder ever with 1:54.92 in the 200 butterfly, the first of his 23 (correct at time of going to press) world records. His records comprise: 6 in the 200 butterfly (still valid 1:52.09 made in 2007), 6 in the 200 medley (1:54.98 that lasts from 2007), 6 in the 400 medley (4:06.22 record set in 2007), one in the 200 freestyle (1:43.86 in 2007), one in the 100 butterfly, one in the 4x100 freestyle relay (3:12.46 in 2006 with USA), one in the 4x200 freestyle relay, and one in the 4x100 medley relay. It was in the 200 butterfly that he won his first world title, in 2001. During his career he has won 17 (this is a record) world titles (200 freestyle 2005-07, 100 butterfly 2007, 200 butterfly 2001-03-07, 200 medley 2003-05-07, 400 medley 2003-07, 4x100 freestyle relay 2005-07, 4x200 freestyle relay 2005-07, 4x100 medley relay 2003-05); in the World Championships he also obtained 3 silvers, plus one gold in 200 m freestyle short course in 2004. At the Pan Pacific Games he got 8 golds and 3 silvers; 38 national individual titles plus 5 in relays.

PHILATELY, NUMISMATICS and OLYMPIC MEMORABILIA There is an IOC commission, the OPNMC (Olympic Philately, Numismatic and Memorabilia Commission) formed of three federations: FIPO (Philately Federation), FINO (Numismatics Federation) and FIMO (Memorabilia Federation). It has been concerned with the popular phenomenon of collecting commemorative objects from the right from the first edition. The menu for the IOC members in Athens, 1896, is one of the most coveted objects amongst collectors. Other items that are frequently collected include commemorative stamps and coins, the earliest Olympic medals, and other items linked to the history of the Games through its various editions.

PHILIPPINES (Republic of the , Asia, capital Manila, area 300.076 km2, population 87.960.115). Nine medals: 2 silver and 7 bronze. Best Olympics: Helsinki 1932 (the only edition in which it won more than one medal) with 3 bronze medals. Best sport: boxing, 2 silver and 3 bronze medals. Most decorated athlete: Teofilo Yldefonzo, swimming, 2 bronze medals (200 breast stroke in 1928 and 1932). The Olympic Committee was formed in 1911, and it received IOC recognition in 1929. Its first Olympic participation was in 1924, after which it missed just the 1980 edition due to a boycott. It won a gold medal in a demonstration sport, Arianne Cerdena for bowling, in 1988.

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PIETRI DORANDO (track & field, Italy, b. Mandrio di Correggio, Reggio Emilia, 16/10/1885, d. Sanremo, Imperia, 7/2/1942). Two appearances (1906, 1908). He never won a medal at the Olympics, and never finished a race, but he is one of the most famous athletes ever to have appeared at the Games. Born in Mandrio di Correggio, he grew up in Carpi, where he was the shop boy at the Pasticceria Roma pastry-shop. When he was young he took up cycling, but after he had been taken to hospital following a nasty fall in a race, his parents persuaded him to give it up and try something else. He started running, and in the space of a few years he became one of Italy’s strongest runners. He made his debut on 2 October 1904, coming second behind Aduo Fava in a 3000 m race in Bologna; a few days later he won his first victory, in Carpi, where he ran 8890 m in an hour, an Italian record that was not validated because it had been run on road and not on track. In summer 1905 he was Italian champion in the 25 km, and in the same year, the people of his hometown collected enough money to send him to Paris, where he won a 30 km race, beating some of the top European specialists. In 1906 he won the Rome Marathon, valid for the selections for the Athens Intermediate Games, but in Greece he fell prey to acute intestinal pains and had to retire after 24 km, when he was in the lead, 5 minutes ahead of those in pursuit. But the episode that brought him immortal fame in the history of the Games is linked to the 1908 London Olympics. He entered the Olympic stadium in the lead in the marathon, collapsed five times, worn out by the effort and probably also by strychnine, a rudimental form of doping used in those days, before crossing the finish line, assisted by a race judge (running in 9:46 the last 352 m, 2h54:46.4 the total time). This is how the reporter for the Gazzetta dello Sport described those final metres: “Overcome by the exhausting fatigue and the intense emotion caused by the enthusiasm of the spectators, he suddenly fell. For a moment the watchers felt that they were witnessing a repeat of the tragic scene at the Parthenon, when the soldier from Marathon fell dead from fatigue, after having delivered his message of victory. No! Durando [sic] struggled to his feet with a harsh intake of breath distorting his features, and took a few more steps, but his knees folded and he fell once more. Everyone felt a wave of sympathy for him, a feeling of emotional admiration for that little Italian who had shown so much, such superhuman, courage. Some ladies were crying, saying: he is about to lose, no, he is losing! But the heroic young man rose, only to fall a third time… And this time, will he be able to get up again? And he succeeded a fourth time. The spectators were irrepressible, they descended from the stands and surrounded him. Did someone help him get up? Apparently, yes. Meanwhile, the next athlete, the American Hayes, had entered the stadium. Pietri was just 40 m from the finish, and in that instant he seemed to be galvanized, and with a supreme final effort he reached the finish line, a man consumed, but victorious”. But the help that he received in those last metres sealed his fate. The Americans presented a protest, Dorando was disqualified, and the gold medal was awarded to Hayes. The day after, in a gesture suggested by Conan Doyle (the creator of Sherlock Holmes), the Italian athlete was presented, by Queen Alexandra, a golden cup identical to that received by the winner. Pietri returned to Italy and was welcomed as a hero, and set off for a long tour as a professional in the United States, where he won 18 races out of 25 (including 9 marathons) in six months, beating twice Hayes, the first of which in a challenge between just these two runners over the distance of 42 km on the track at Madison Square Garden, New York, in front of 35.000 spectators. Over the next two years he was engaged in other strenuous but profitable tours, until his retirement in 1910, by which time he had won a total of 88 victories in 128 races. On his return to Italy, he invested all his savings in the Grand Hotel Dorando, built in the centre of Carpi, but it went bankrupt in just a few years. He moved to Sanremo where he opened a garage and taxi service, and for a brief period he was also an observer for FIDAL. His heart had been strained by the intense competition of his early youth, and he died at the age of 56 following a heart attack.

PINSENT MATTHEW CLIVE (rowing, Great Britain, b. Holt 10/10/1970). Four appearances (1992, 1996, 2000, 2004) and 4 gold medals (coxless pair 1992 and 1996, coxless four 2000 and 2004). 1992 1-0-0, 1996 1-0-0, 2000 1-0-0, 2004 1-0-0. Son of the curate of St. Andrew’s parish church in Holt, Norfolk, after winning two University Boat Races (Oxford vs. Cambridge) as

162 The Olympic Dictionary captain of Oxford in 1990-91, this giant, 1.93 m, who curiously admits to being a hypochondriac, won a gold medal in Barcelona with Steven Redgrave (q.v.) almost 5 seconds ahead of the German crew. He won a gold in the same event at Atlanta, in his 100th race in a pair. With Redgrave, and also James Cracknell and Tim Foster, he won gold at Sydney in the coxless four (the medal was stolen from him in a car park, and returned 10 days later), 35 hundredths ahead of Italy, three months after an unexpected 4th place in the World Championships, the three previous editions of which he had won. After having missed the 2004 Trials due to tonsillitis, he was to have raced in the coxless pair in Athens with Cracknell, but once again he was diverted to the coxless four (causing some dispute: “It’s like finding your best friend in bed with your girlfriend”, said Toby Garnett, one of the two rowers excluded), in which, this time with Ed Coode and Steve Williams, he won his fourth gold medal beating the Canadian crew by just 8 hundredths of a second. After the 2 bronzes won in his first two World Championship appearances, he attained the record number of 10 gold medals: coxless pair in 1991-93-94-95 with Redgrave and in 2001-02 with Cracknell; coxless four in 1997-98 with Cracknell, Foster and Redgrave, and in 1999 with Coode instead of Foster; coxed pair in 2001 with Cracknell and cox Neil Chugani, the hardest race of all, with just two hours between this final and the other for the coxless pair, in which he won another gold. He retired in 2004, and now works as a journalist at the BBC.

PIZZO ERALDO (water polo, Italy, b. Genoa 21/4/1938). Four appearances (1960, 1964, 1968, 1972) and one gold (1960). He scored 7 goals in 6 matches, included 2 against Germany and one against Soviet Union in the semi-final tournament at the Games in Rome, where Italy won after having beaten Yugoslavia 2-1 and having ended with a draw 3-3 against Hungary. Nicknamed “Cayman”, he also took part to the Tokyo Games in ’64 (6 appearances and 5 goals, Italy arriving fourth), ’68 (9 appearances and 29 goals, Italy arriving fourth) and Munich ’72 (8 appearances and 12 goals, Italy getting sixth). In the National team he collected 178 appearances and 275 scores. He won 16 shields, one Italian “ognisport” record: 15 at Pro Recco (1959-60-61-62- 64-65-66-67-68-69-70-71-72-74-82, playing 153 consecutive matches between 1965 and ‘73) and one at Bogliasco (1981). At Pro Recco he got the Championship Cup in 1964 and the Italian Cup in 1974. He played at Pescara (1978) and Torino (1980). He reached the first position in the “bomber best list” in 1959 (9 goals) and in ‘62 (27) and then, with 69 goals, in the Championship in 1967: he scored more than 1200 goals. He retired at 44 years and became president of Pro Recco. As a coach he was Dennerlein’s right hand in the main National Team (1987-90), obtaining a World title (1995); then he was team manager at Brescia, c.t. at Chiavari, leader at Camogli as well as c.t. at Pro Recco.

POLAND (Republic of Poland, Europe, capital Warsaw, area 312.685 km2, population 38.081.970). 251 medals: 59 gold, 74 silver, 118 bronze. Best Olympics: Montreal 1976, 7 gold, 6 silver and 13 bronze medals. Best sport: track & field, with 21 gold, 16 silver and 13 bronze medals. Best athlete: Irena Szewinska-Kirszenstein (q.v.), track & field, 3 gold (4x100 m 1964, 200 m 1968, 400 m 1976), 2 silver (200 m 1964, long jump 1964) and 2 bronze (100 m 1968, 200 m 1972) medals, though Robert Korzeniowski (q.v.) won one more gold, again in track & field, with 4 for the 50 km walk (1996, 2000 and 2004) and the 20 km walk (2000). The Olympic Committee, formed in 1918, received IOC recognition the following year: from 1924 Poland has taken part in all Olympics except for the 1984 Games which it missed because of the boycott. In the early 20th century (Poland regained independence in 1918), Polish-born athletes had competed for other countries, in two cases winning medals: Jerzy Gajdzyk, who changed his name in America to George Gaidzik, bronze in springboard diving in 1908; and Julius Wisniewski, who became Beresford in Great Britain, silver in the coxed four (rowing) in 1912.

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POLI GIUSEPPE (rowing, Italy, b. - 30/11/1886, d. - ). One appearance (1906) and one gold medal (coxed four). The fourth member of the crew of the Bucintoro Venezia which won the coxed four (at that time known as the “four-oared gig”) over the 2 km course on the sea in the bay of Neon Phaliron, Athens, on 24 April 1906, with Enrico Bruna (q.v.) and Emilio Fontanella (q.v.), cox Giorgio Cesana (q.v.). They finished ahead of the French crews from the Societé Nautique de la Baisse Seine and the Societé Nautique de Bayonne, in a straight final with 8 boats, including 3 other Greek crews, a Danish boat and one from Smyrna. Three days later, Bruna and Fontanella, with cox Cesana, won another two gold medals in two other finals, the 1000 metres and the mile, beating the Barion di Bari in the first, and, in the second, a Belgian crew from Ghent with a Greek cox.

POLO Polo was played at the 1900, 1908, 1920 and 1924 Olympics, and then for the last time in 1936. It is now governed by FIP (Fédération Internationale de Polo – www.fippolo.com).

POPOV ALEXANDR VLADIMIROVICH (swimming, Russia, b. Yekaterinenburg, at that time Svyerdlovsk, 16/11/1971). Four appearances (1992 for CIS, 1996, 2000, 2004), 4 gold (50 freestyle 1992 and 1996, 100 freestyle 1992 and 1996) and 5 silver medals (100 freestyle 2000, 4x100 freestyle relay 1992 and 1996, 4x100 medley relay 1992 and 1996). 1992 2-2-0, 1996 2-2-0, 2000 0-1-0. Starting off as a backstroke specialist and then moving on to crawl, encouraged by his coach Gennadi Turetski, whom he retained for his entire career, he is considered as one of the greatest freestyle swimmers ever. Two metres in height, 90 kg weight, he developed athletically in Leningrad (later St. Petersburg) and specialized in sprint swimming. At the 1992 Games he consolidated his success, winning gold in 100 freestyle with half a second ahead of Brasilian Borges, and 2 days later winning 50 freestyle ahead of Matt Biondi (q.v.) and Tom Jager. He moved to Australia, where his coach had found a job, and at the Atlanta Games he attained the same results as 4 years earlier, beating Gary Hall (q.v.) in the two individual events (22.13 in the 50 and 48.74 in the 100). A few weeks later, he was involved in a brawl in a market in Moscow, and in the attempt to defend his girlfriend, swimmer Darya Shmelyova, who would later become his wife and give him two children, he was stabbed in the side by a water-melon seller. He underwent a delicate operation, but it did not adversely affect his career. “I decided to be baptized, I had to thank God for having survived”, he said when he left the hospital. In 2000, at the Sydney Games, he failed in his attempt at winning his third consecutive gold in 50 (in which he came 6th) and the 100 (silver behind Peter van den Hoogenband q.v.). He retired in 2004 after taking part to the only Olympic without achieving the podium. He won 6 World Championship titles (50 freestyle 1994-03, 100 freestyle 1994-98-2003, 4x100 freestyle relay 2003), 4 silver and one bronze medals and 2 bronzes in short course; 21 European titles (50 freestyle 1993-95-97-2000-04, 100 freestyle 1991-93-95-97- 2000, 4x100 freestyle relay 1991-93-95-97-2000, 4x100 medley relay 1991-93-95-97-2000-02), he also won 3 silver and 2 bronze medals in continental events. He set a world record in 50 freestyle (21.64 in 2000, improved in 2008) and another record in 100 m freestyle (48.21 in 1994, improved 6 years later).

PORRO ENRICO (wrestling, Italy, b. Milan 16/1/1885, d. Milan 14/3/1967). Three appearances (1908, 1920, 1924) and one gold medal (Greco-Roman, lightweight 66.6 kg 1908). Son of parents originating from Varese who moved to Milan, he grew up in the Porta Ticinese district where, as a safety valve for his naturally aggressive nature and restless character, he began wrestling, after his mother had sent him away as a sailor on ships to America. He joined a Milan gym known as “Paviment de giass”, which is the Milanese dialect for “ice floor”. “There are two possible origins for this name”, wrote Luigi Gianoli in Sport Illustrato, “either because it was freezing in winter, or because of the fact that anyone trying to wrestle there was immediately put on the floor, in other words he couldn’t stand up for more than a few seconds because the wrestlers at that gym were so strong and relentless”. Only just over 1.50 m tall, but well built and with a muscular physique developed by hard work on board ship, he specialized in Greco-Roman wrestling, and in 1905 won

164 The Olympic Dictionary the first of his 5 Italian titles in that speciality. In 1908 the Navy, in which he had been performing military service since 1904, gave him leave to take part in the London Games, where, after having passed the first round without fighting, in the next matches he beat the Hungarian Téger, and the Swedes Malmström and Persson. On the mat, Porro was skilful in metering his strength: he waited for his opponent, let him make the first move, and then counter-attacked and unleashed his power. For the final, he borrowed a wrestling vest two sizes too large from a Finnish wrestler, because his own had been reduced to shreds in the preceding matches. In the decisive match he was up against the Russian Nikolay Orlov, who weighed 7 kg more than him and who, as he had studied him in the previous rounds, adopted a passive tactic, forcing Porro to abandon his normal style and attack first. To the traditional two rounds of 15 minutes each, the judges added a third of 20 minutes, because they were not convinced of the Milanese wrestler’s superiority, but he was declared the winner in the end. He received the gold medal from the hands of Queen Alexandra, and on his triumphant return to Italy, King Vittorio Emanuele III wanted to meet him. “He gave me a medal as large as a michetta” (the traditional Milanese bread roll). Four years later he was unable to take part in the Games, because a few weeks before the Olympics he burnt his hand with a short circuit. He appeared – only because the Federation had so decided – at Antwerp 1920 (where he was eliminated in the quarter-finals by the Belgian Boumans) and at Paris 1924 (knocked out in the second round). He retired and continued coaching young wrestlers, dying in the same district of Porta Ticinese in 1967, at the age of 82.

PORTUGAL (Portuguese Republic, Europe, capital Lisbon, area 92.152 km2, population 10.623.032). 20 medals: 3 gold, 6 silver, 11 bronze. Best Olympics: Los Angeles 1984 with one gold and 2 bronze medals. Best sport: track & field, 3 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze medals. Best athlete: Carlos Alberto Sousa Lopes, track & field, with one gold (marathon 1984) and one silver (10.000 m 1976). The Olympic Committee, formed in 1909, received IOC recognition in that year: since 1912 it has taken part in all the Olympics.

PRESS IRINA NATANOVNA (track & field, USSR, b. Kharkov, now Ukraine, 10/3/1939, d. Moscow 21/2/2004). Two appearances (1960, 1964) and 2 gold medals (80 hurdles 1960, pentathlon 1964). 1960 1-0-0, 1964 1-0-0. She won a gold medal in Tokyo, where the pentathlon was introduced into the Olympic programme (becoming the heptathlon 20 years later), even though three of her five performances (high jump, long jump, and 200 m) were worse than Mary Rand’s, who won the silver medal. The decisive factor was the shot-put: 17.16 (45 cm further than the distance with which she came 6th in the Olympic shot-put event three days later), as compared to just 11.05 for British athlete Rand. She also came 4th with the Soviet 4x100 in 1960 and in the 80 hs in 1964. She set six world records in the 80 hs (from 10.6 in 1960 to 10.3 in 1965) and six in the pentathlon (from 4.880 points in 1959 to the 5.246 with which she won the Olympic gold in 1964). She abandoned athletics in 1966, and her subsequent career included work for the KGB.

PRESS TAMARA NATANOVNA (track & field, USSR, b. Kharkov, now Ukraine, 10/5/1937). Two appearances (1960, 1964), 3 gold medals (shot put 1960 and 1964, discus 1964) and one silver (discus 1960). 1960 1-1-0, 1964 2-0-0. With Irina (q.v.) and her Jewish parents, she survived the German invasion of Ukraine, and grew much larger than her sister (180 cm height, 100 kg weight, compared to Irina, 168 cm, 70 kg). She came close to achieving two golds in Rome, coming second to another Soviet, Ponomaryeva in the discus, the speciality in which just a week before, she had set her first world record at 57.15, a distance that would have enabled her to win the gold medal by over 2 metres. Then she succeeded in Tokyo, with a 57.27 in the discus on her fifth throw when she was only in 4th place, and the day after with 18.14 in the shot put. She achieved the same double in the 1962 European Championships, after winning a gold (discus) and a bronze in 1958. She won 16 Soviet titles, 9 in the shot put and 7 in the discus. She set six world records in the shot put (from 17.25 in 1959 to 18.59 in 1965) and six in the discus (from 57.15 in 1960 to 59.70 in 1965). Like

165 The Olympic Dictionary her sister, she retired in 1966, officially to look after her sick mother, immediately after the introduction of the test to ascertain sex. At the time the sisters were called the “Press brothers” by their detractors.

PRINSTEIN MEYER (track & field, USA, b. Szczecin, Poland, 22/12/1878, d. New York, NY, 10/3/1925). Three appearances (1900, 1904, 1906), 4 gold medals (triple jump 1900 and 1904, long jump 1904 and 1906) and one silver (long jump 1900). 1900 1-1-0, 1904 2-0-0, 1906 1-0-0. Born Mejer Prinsztejn, he emigrated to the USA with his family in 1883; in June 1900 he achieved the best long jump performance in the world at 7.50. The month after, he jumped 7.175 in the qualifications for the Olympics, but the board of the University of Syracuse prohibited his participation in the final for religious reasons, because it had been moved to Sunday: and so he was overtaken by a centimetre by another American, Alvin Kraenzlein (q.v.), who unexpectedly decided to compete for this event. Prinstein was shocked by this “betrayal” by his team mate (who was in fact Christian, while he was Jewish), and he punched him. The day after, he won the triple jump, jumping half a metre further than James Connolly (q.v.), who had won the first Olympic competition in 1896, Athens. Then, in St. Louis, he won the long and triple jumps, the only athlete who has succeeded in this double in the history of the Games. He achieved it on the same day, with 7.34 in the long jump (benefiting from the absence of Irish athlete O’Connor, world record holder with 7.61, which survived until 1921) and 14.35 (at the 6th and last attempt) in the triple jump. Then he won his fourth gold in the Athens Intermediate Games, ahead of O’Connor, who protested for a jump that he said had been unjustly invalidated and which would have enabled him to overtake his rival. Prinstein also came 5th in the 60 m and the 400 m in 1904; he was eliminated in the semi-final of the 100 m in 1906, and he won four US titles in the long jump.

PUERTO RICO (Commonwealth of , semi-autonomous territory of the USA, Caribbean, capital San Juan, area 9.104 km2, population 3.990.505). Six medals: one silver, 5 bronze. Best Olympics: Los Angeles 1984, one silver and one bronze. Best sport: boxing, in which it won all its 6 medals. Best athlete: Luis Ortiz, boxing, silver medal in the lightweight 60 kg category in 1984. The Olympic Committee, formed in 1948, was immediately recognized by the IOC: from that year on it has taken part in all the Olympics. San Juan was an unsuccessful candidate city for the 2004 Games.

PULITI ORESTE (fencing, Italy, b. Livorno 18/2/1891, d. Lucca 5/2/1958). Three appearances (1920, 1924, 1928), 4 gold medals (team foil 1920 and 1928, team sabre 1920 and 1924) and one silver (team sabre 1928). 1920 2-0-0, 1924 1-0-0, 1928 1-1-0. In Antwerp he won both the team competitions in which he took part: first in foil (12 successes in 16 assaults in the final round, with 2 out of 4 against France, silver, beaten 9-7 by Italy), then in sabre, in which Italy once again beat the French 13-3, with Puliti winning 20 out of 24 assaults (and three out of four in the decisive match). Four years later, in Paris, Italy finished ahead of Hungary in sabre (8-8, but 50-46 considering the hits) in a contest that was dominated by Puliti, who won three assaults out of four in the decisive match and 26 out of 28 overall, scoring 110 hits and receiving just 39. In 1928, Amsterdam, he won eight assaults out of eight in the preliminary rounds of the team foil event and then, in the final round, he contributed to the victories against France, who came second (10-6: he achieved two victories and two defeats), and Argentina, third (11-5: he attained 3/1). In 1924 he was involved in a dramatic incident in the individual sabre event. The final round began with assaults amongst the Italians: Puliti beat Bertinetti (q.v.), Sarrocchi (q.v.) and Bini (q.v.), but the Hungarian judge Kovacs accused the latter of not trying, basically saying that the Italians had “guaranteed” the victory for their leader in order to assist him in his attempt to win the gold medal. Puliti whispered to Italo Santelli, an Italian fencing master who had been living in Budapest since 1896 and who had won a silver medal for Hungary in 1900: “Tell Kovacs that, if he wants, we can settle the question with a good thrashing, just as we Fascists do”. When the jury learnt about this

166 The Olympic Dictionary they disqualified Puliti, and the other three Italians abandoned the competition in protest. The story did not end there, because Puliti met Kovacs at the Folies Bergères, insulted him and waited for the seconds. The duel took place a few months later in Nagykanitza, on the border between Hungary and Yugoslavia: it lasted 59 minutes, Kovacs was injured four times, but Puliti had just a scratch on his chin when the seconds proposed suspending the match. The fiery Puliti’s record (in the Olympics he came close to two individual medals, as he finished 4th in sabre in 1920 and in foil in 1928: on the latter occasion he reached the final unbeaten, lost three assaults and ended just one victory behind the three fencers who fought for the medals) includes 2 gold medals in individual foil (1927-29) and one in team foil (1929) in what were then known as European Championships and which were later considered as being at World Championship level; plus three Italian titles in sabre (1921-22-23) and two in foil (1921-23).

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