Pietro Mennea, the legendary Italian sprinter, was remembered yesterday in Barletta, on the occasion of the presentation of the coin created by the State Printing and Mint Institute dedicated to the ‘Southern Arrow’. The work designed by the artist Emanuele Ferretti represents Mennea, immortalized with the bib ‘433’, symbol of his Olympic victory in Moscow in 1980, together with the number ‘8’, his triumphant lane. “We wanted to honor a great Italian and Barletta native. He was a champion like few others not only in sport but also in life. His battles against doping are well known but also his role as a member of the European Parliament. We tried to highlight the man, his willpower that so well characterizes his southernness flaunted on the athletics track. A typical determination of those born in the South and of those accustomed to sacrifice. These aspects have contributed to making Mennea a champion.” , Stella Mele, director of the State Printing and Mint Institute, explains to Adnkronos.
“It was important to organize this event in Barletta to pay homage to the city that gave birth to him, to the citizens and coaches who discovered him”, underlines Stella Mele. “The choice to present the coin at the headquarters of the Provincial Command of the Guardia di Finanza also has a double meaning: on an institutional level it allowed the Command to be opened up to citizens to make the State feel close to them but the Command is also close to of the famous ‘Salita del Vaglio’ where Mennea trained as a young man”.
In addition to the wife of the champion born in Barletta in 1952 and who died in Rome in 2013, the presentation of the coin was attended by, among others, the president of the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato Paolo Perrone, the board member of the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca of the Stella Mele State and Giuseppe Pulvirenti, Pietro Mennea’s historical doctor, “who told interesting anecdotes” of the Olympic champion of the 200 meter dash in Moscow in 1980 and world record holder of the specialty from 1979 to 1996 with a time of 19″82. Mennea he also held the Italian record for the 100 meters from 1979 to 2018 with a time of 10.01 (European record until 1984). In short, yesterday, Stella Mele further underlines, “Pietro Mennea was described not only as the sportsman that he was but also as the man that he was. It was an engaging and exciting moment”.
The coin which was created by IPZS as part of the 2024 Numismatic Collection, dedicated to the ‘Rome 2024 European Athletics Championships – Pietro Mennea’, on the obverse represents an athletics field with its characteristic elliptical shape and lanes. In the centre, the official logo of the Rome 2024 European Athletics Championships flanked by the writing ‘Italian Republic’; on the right, the author’s signature ‘E. Ferretti’.
On the reverse, Pietro Mennea is depicted with the bib number ‘433’, which he wore when he won the gold medal at the Games of the XXII Olympiad, and the shorts with the number ‘8’, indicating the lane in which he reached the highest podium at the Olympic Games which took place in Moscow in 1980. Below, on the right, ’19”72′ representing the 200 meters world record set by Pietro Mennea in Mexico City in 1979. Below, on the left, the value ’10 euros’; on the top, on the left, ‘Pietro Mennea’, ‘La Arrow del Sud’ and ‘2024’, the year of issue of the coin; in the centre, ‘R’, identifier of the Mint of Rome. The coin with colored elements, minted in a circulation of 5000 pieces, is in gilded silver, in the proof version, and was designed by the artist Emanuele Ferretti.