Alfredo Calligaris, the father of sports medicine died in Bergamo. From the blue avalanche to the 1982 World Cup – breaking latest news

For everyone he was simply the professor. A discreet and constant presence even at the stadium, where it was very easy to meet him at every Atalanta match. And where he was very recognizable, if only for his white hair and thick eyebrows. Pure white ones. Alfredo Calligaris, a well-known figure in sports circles, not only in Bergamo for his past as an all-round homme de sport, passed away this morning at the age of 95: as an athlete, coach and then athletic trainer.

Born in Rovigo d’Istria, Bergamo by adoption, he was considered the father of international sports medicineHaving graduated in medicine at the age of 50, he has forged dozens of champions in his career.

Thanks to him I don’t catch a cold anymore, said Gimondi, speaking of him as proof of how Calligaris has always worked more on the man than on the athlete, on the mental aspect, so much so that he earned the nickname of The modeler of men coined by Gianni Brera. Calligaris can also boast the merit of having included athletic training in football. Atalanta – he said one by one, telling himself – served a lot for my inclusion in Bergamo, it should be noted that starting from Atalanta we then invented athletic training in football, before we did little or nothing….

Calligaris followed Gimondi very closely, but also the blue ski avalanche with Gustav Thoeni and Piero Gros, even before that he had been a trainer for Herrera’s Inter, without a degree in his pocket, over the years he had also followed the national athletics team, but above all the Azzurri World Champions in Spain in 1982.