Michele Fanelli

Michele Fanelli was an Italian long-distance runner, born on 14 September 1907 and died in 1989, who competed in the marathon at the 1932 Summer Olympics. Olympedia records that he was born at Orta Nova in the province of Foggia and that he left a poor peasant family through running. He won the Italian marathon championship twice, in 1932 and 1934, and was eighth at the 1934 European Championships in Turin, winning two caps for the national team. He was a convinced Communist and is remembered for refusing a trophy offered by the Fascist regime. After the Second World War the city of Foggia employed him at its stadium, and he later moved to Turin as a factory worker.