Man has left a number of ancient marks in the Cinque Torri-Averau area since the early traces of seasonal settlements of shepherds and woodcutters and the alterations of the environment that followed.
An unpublished collection of 47th vintage postcards of Cortina and surroundings, from the 20's to the 50's .
Chapter 20 - 1956 Winter Games - The athletes from Cortina
32 nations participated in the first Italian Olympics with 923 athletes who broke a shower of records. As many as 73 olympic records were broken on the ice track of Misurina!” The most outstanding result, however, were the three gold medals won by the same athlete: Austrian Anton Sailer.
Italy, which had come out in pieces from the war, shone bright with the golden medal in the two-men bobsleigh race and the silver medals, in the two- and in the four-men competitions won by Eugenio Monti, an athlete from Cortina. Worth remembering is also the third place gained by Giuliana Chenal Minuzzo in the women’s Alpine combined competition.
Finally, we would like to mention the great athletes from Cortina, who had taken part in the previous Olympics – sometimes in more than one – and were present (their hair grey or white by then) to celebrate their younger fellow-athletes. Enrico Colli, Vincenzo Colli, Ivo Demenego, Giuseppe Ghedina, Chamonix, 1924. Ino Dallago, Ernesto Zardini, Severino Menardi , Lake Placid, 1932. Francesco de Zanna, Amedeo Angeli, Ernesto Franceschi, Severino Menardi, Garmisch,1936. Albino Alverà, Silvio Alverà, Luciano de Bigontina, Roberto Lacedelli, Claudio Apollonio, Dino Menardi, St. Moritz,1948. Albino Alverà, Silvio Alverà, Ilio Colli, Roberto Lacedelli, Uberto Gillarduzzi, Michele Alverà, Lino Zanettin, Oslo, 1952.
The first Winter Olympic Games took place in Chamonix (France), in 1924 and were followed by the ones of Lake Placid (U.S.A.), in 1932 and of Garmisch Partenkirken (Germany), in 1936. The war cancelled both the Games scheduled in 1940 and in 1944; the latter had been awarded to Cortina d'Ampezzo. In the post war period, the fifth Games took place in St. Moritz (Switzerland) in 1948 and the 6th ones in Oslo (Norway) in 1952. Therefore the Winter Games organized by Cortina in 1956, the first to take place in Italy, had the number 7, a good omen.
Credits
All the texts are copyright of Mario Ferruccio Belli.
No use is allowed without the author's prior written consent.
