Gianni Merlo

Giovanni "Gianni" Merlo (born in Vigevano on 16 April 1947) is an Italian sports journalist, reporter at La Gazzetta dello Sport and current president of International Sports Press Association, AIPS [Italian]. He is married, and has a son and a daughter. In his youth, he practised athletics, football, and basketball. He began his journalistic career in 1967 with the magazine "Atletica Leggera" and later became a contributor to newspapers “Il Giorno”, “La Gazzetta del Popolo” and “Stadio”.

In 1972 he served as an assistant commentator for RSI (the Swiss-Italian Radio Television), with which he participated in the 1972 Munich Olympics. In 1973 he was called to perform the same role at RAI, Italian Radio, and Television.

In 1974 he was hired by the "Gazzetta dello Sport", where he held the position of head of service for athletics, skiing, and Olympic politics.

He has covered twenty-five Olympic Games events: Thirteen Winter (Innsbruck 1976, Lake Placid 1980, Sarajevo 1984, Calgary 1988, Albertville 1992, Lillehammer 1994, Nagano 1998, Salt Lake City 2002, Turin 2006, Vancouver 2010, Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018 and Beijing 2022) and twelve Summer (Munich 1972, Moscow 1980, Los Angeles 1984, Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio de Janeiro 2016 and Tokyo 2020).

He has participated in World and European Championships in athletics, skiing and other sports from 1969 to date.

In 1983 he edited two sports encyclopedias for Rizzoli: "Conoscere l'atletica" and "Conoscere lo sci".

From 1986 to 2005 he was president of the AIPS Athletics Commission. From 1994 to 1998 he was president of the European Sports Press Union (UEPS).

From 1990 to 1999 he was the director of the magazine "Atletica Leggera" and from 1990 to 2000 he edited the annual edition of the volumes "Atletica" and "Sci", photos chronicles of the competitive seasons of these sports, part of the series "The Great Illustrated Sports".

In May 2005 in Marrakech, he was elected President of the A.I.P.S. (Association International de la Presse Sportive) which has 161 National Associations worldwide with more than 9000 member journalists. He was reconfirmed as president in Milan in 2009, Sochi in 2013, PyeongChang in 2017 and Rome 2022.

In 2008 he wrote the book “Dream Runner - Running for a Dream” with Oscar Pistorius.

Honour

 * IAAF Award in the nomination of the best sports journalist in 2013.