Giuseppe Ottaviani (athlete)

Giuseppe Ottaviani (born 20 May 1916) is an Italian centenarian and masters athlete. Commander of the Italian Republic for high sporting merits.

He turned 100 in May 2016.

He is the first and only centenary athlete to make triple jump. He is the current indoor world record holder in the M95 and M100 60 metres. He also held the indoor world record for the triple jump and long jump, and the outdoor world record for the triple jump He has 56 Italian National Championships with 13 national records, still holds 9 world record and the discus European record.

Biography
After serving in the Italian Air Force during World War II, he spent his career as a men's tailor.

He married Alba Michelini and has three children: Paolo, Marzia and Matelda. Marzia is now a top masters marathon runner.

At the suggestion of the brothers Paolo and Giuliano Costantini, he started masters athletics in the late 1980s. He won his first national championship in 1999. He was coached by Graziano Bacchiocchi and then in 2010, Mauro Angelini coached him to high jump. After turning 95 in 2011, he became the first 95-year-old athlete to surpass 2 meters for the long jump and 4 meters for the triple jump. He drives himself the 25 km from his home in Sant'Ippolito to the training facility in Fano.

He lives by two mottos: "For me, sport is life, sport is joy" and "curiosity drives me to live."

At age 94 he bought a wireless ADSL computer, and at 97 he enrolled in the University of the Third Age in Fossombrone.

At the invitation of Professor Ario Federici, he has given the opening lecture in Kinesiology at the University of Urbino for the last two years.