Oldest Olympians is saddened to learn that Giuseppe Moioli, born August 8, 1927, died today, May 5, at the age of 97. Moioli won gold for Italy in rowing’s coxless fours event at the 1948 London Games, just missed the podium in fourth in 1956 Melbourne, and also competed in 1952 Helsinki. He was a five-time European champion in this event between 1947 and 1956, and also won with the eights in 1958, in addition to a coxless fours gold medal at the 1955 Mediterranean Games. He later worked as a coach.

At the time of his death, Moioli was the oldest living Italian Olympic medalist and the oldest living Olympic medalist in rowing. The former distinction now goes to Ennio Mattarelli, born August 5, 1928, who was already the oldest living Olympic sport shooting medalist. Mattarelli represented Italy in the trap event at the 1964 Tokyo Games, where he won the gold medal. He also competed in 1968, where he was 27th, and won seven medals – three of them gold – at the World Championships between 1961 and 1974. He later worked as a coach and opened a business that manufactured clay pigeon launchers.

The oldest living Olympic medalist in rowing is now Neville Howell, born December 17, 1929. Howell represented Australia in the eights at the 1956 Melbourne Games and won bronze. He was a gold medalist in that event at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, and also competed in the coxed pairs at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, where he was eliminated in the round one repêchage. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2020 for his lifetime of community service, and he was already the oldest living Australian Olympic medalist.

(Charles Six)

While we are blogging, we wanted to update a handful of deaths discovered by Connor Mah from the list that we provided a few entries ago about 1928 Olympians for whom we had no biographical data. French field hockey player Charles Six was actually Albert Charles Six, born December 18, 1901 and died March 11, 1987. Swiss field hockey player Charles Piot was born in 1901 and died in October 1990. Swiss water polo player Ernest Hüttenmoser was actually Ernst Hüttenmoser, born August 8, 1908 and died May 27, 1980. Swiss weightlifter Franz Riederer was born August 31, 1897 and died December 31, 1963. Finally, we have updated data on two Swiss wrestlers: Isidor Bieri was born June 5, 1905 and died July 29, 1983, while Max Studer was born September 17, 1899 and died April 30, 1957.