Giuseppe Domenichelli

Giuseppe Domenichelli first came to public attention in 1909, when he was selected as a reserve for the 4th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in conjunction with the 9th Federal Festival held in Luxembourg. He was particularly strong in athletic events like rope climbing and won the athletic competition at the Piacenza gymnastics meet in the same year.

Domenichelli earned a spot on the Italian team for the 1912 Olympic Games by placing sixth in the artistic gymnastics selection event held in June in Bologna. After attending a pre-Olympic training camp in Brescia, the team dominated the team event in the European System, which focussed on apparatus exercises. In August that year, he won the individual artistic event in a three-way tie with Vitaliano Masotti and Adolfo Tunesi at the Prato gymnastics meet.

In the following years, Domenichelli struggled to maintain his competitive level. He narrowly made it to the 1913 World Championships in Paris. There, Italy only placed third to win bronze. In 1914, he again won the Prato gymnastics meet, but due to the outbreak of World War I, no major gymnastics competitions were held until the end of 1919. Although some of his first results after the war were less convincing, Domenichelli was invited to attend the training camp in Cornigliano, where his results were sufficient to make him a member of the Italian team for the 1920 Olympics in Antwerpen. The team event followed a similar system as in 1912. Italy repeated its victory from Stockholm which earned him his second gold. Already 33-years-old, this triumph was to be his last major competition.

After retiring from competitive gymnastics Domenichelli acted as referee, for instance as a member of the jury at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. In 1936, he prepared the Italian team as coach for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In 1940, he was a technical director of the Emilia-Romagna Regional Committee of the Italian Gymnastics Federation.