Claude Landini

Claude Landini was born and raised in Genève, the son of an Italian father and French-born mother. One of the founding members of the Jonction Basketball Club in Genève, Landini first became active in the sport in the 1940s as player-coach of Jonction while he also worked as a chemist at a laboratory. In 1948, he was one of 4 players from his club (along with Claude Chevalley, Jean Tribolet and Henri Baumann) who were selected to represent their country at the 1948 Olympics in London. The Swiss team eventually finished 21st in the tournament, defeating Ireland in a classification match but losing all 5 round-robin games.

Following the Olympics, Landini continued his affiliation with Jonction and was a member of 6 straight Swiss Basketball League championship winning teams, from 1951 to 1957. He also was selected for the 1952 Swiss Olympic team, but opted to stay back in Switzerland to be with his pregnant wife. Following his retirement from playing, he continued to be involved in the Swiss basketball scene by way of coaching and also played in old timers’ matches up until the 1990s. His son, Pierre-Alain Landini was active in amateur basketball in the 1970s, and another son, Gilles Landini is a well-known musician and professional pianist.