Maurizio Loi

Maurizio Loi was a windsurfing specialist who, alongside other athletes from the Sardinia Region in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including Manuela Mascia and Paolo Brianda, won many international titles in the Windsurfer class.

Domestically, Loi won three Italian titles between 1980 and 1983. In 1984 he competed at the Los Angeles Olympics in windsurfing, as the only Italian in the demonstration event, finishing 13th. He also finished runner-up at the Team World Championships in Baia Sardinia, and later placed second in the Masters World Championships at age 45.

In love with the sea, after having been featured on the sports pages for a long time, he was later at the center of a tragic news story. On 9 July 2015, he was driving the yacht in which an 11-year-old girl was killed when she was struck by the boat’s propeller, and in January 2019 he was sentenced to 4½ years in prison after being convicted of manslaughter. At the same time, he first displayed symptoms of the incurable disease to which he succumbed in July 2020.