Carlo Speroni

Carlo Speroni was the top Italian distance runner for over a decade. He won 12 national titles in the 5,000, 10,000, 20K, and cross-country, and also won the Giro di Milano four times, at the time the most important road race in Italy.

His club, US Busto Arsizio, paid his expenses to send him to the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, where he was among the leaders of the marathon for two-thirds of the race, although he later withdrew. In 1920 at Antwerp he was seventh in the 5,000 metres. Speroni was the Italian record holder at 5,000 (15:24.6 Verona, 12 October 1919) and 10,000 metres (32:03,8 Busto Arsizio, 11 May 1924). His greatest day was considered to be 27 September 1914 in Milano when he won the 20K Italian title in 1-06:36, far surpassing the world record of Finland’s Tatu Kolehmainen (1-07:40.2).

From 1936-66 Speroni was a massage therapist for the football section of the club Pro Patria et Libertate, where he was also advisor and team manager of men and women athletes of various disciplines. In 1971 the stadium in Busto Arsizio was named in his honor.

Personal Bests: 3000 – 8:59.0 (1924); 5000 – 15:24.6 (1919); 10000 – 32:03.8 (1924); Mar – 2-44:58 (1913).