General Raimondo d’Inzeo, eight-time Olympian and individual gold medallist at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, has passed away at home in Italy at the age of 88.

Born on 2 February 1925 in Poggio Mirteto, north of Rome, Raimondo d’Inzeo was the son of renowned equestrian Carlo Costante d’Inzeo, chief instructor in Piemonte Reale, the Royal Piedmontese Dragoons, the smartest regiment in the Italian cavalry, and later dean of the equestrian faculty of the Italian sports university La Farnesina in Rome. Raimondo was the younger brother of Piero d’Inzeo, himself a seven-time Olympian and winner of six Olympic medals.

Raimondo d’Inzeo took up riding at the age of 10 and became so scared when he was first on horseback that his father told him to leave the arena. “But then at home every evening Piero and Papà were always chatting about horses and riding that I felt excluded,” he recalled in an interview, “so I decided it was worth giving horses a second chance – and fortunately I did!”

Advertisement