Rome 1959: Fascist Architecture, Barefoot Running and Not Really Heatstroke

 by MJ Malleck//

Today’s postcard is written is a scrawling script, that in another generation, when cursive is no longer taught, will be hard to decipher. I got most of it, but I’m not sure what the one word at the top of the postcard says. (Not Saturday, May 10 in 1959 was a Sunday). Hazel smartly printed the mailing address.

Rome, May 10

This is the best and we do so hope you two will be able to go with us next year. fine food. good hotels and lots of fun, and art. Love Hazel & Morty.

The photo is a black and white of what looks like a football stadium. It says Roma Stadio Olympico. (On the other side, Olympic Stadium (English), Stade Olympique (French) Olympisches Stadium (German) The stamp was 35 Lires.

I was curious why anyone would send a postcard of a sports stadium, from the city that holds the Coliseum and so many ancient wonders. Then I discovered that this stadium was part of the 1960 Summer Olympic Games, which Rome hosted. So, Hazel and Morty sound like they are going to the Olympics! And scoping out the place the year before.

Italians must have been excited. Rome had been ready to host the 1908 Summer Olympics but because Mount Vesuvius erupted in 1906, the city had to decline and give them over to London, England.

The stadium in the picture here no longer exists – it was demolished and restructured in concrete and covered with a roof between 1987 and 1990.
But this stadium was designed and constructed beginning in 1927 as part of a larger building complex, a project by the dictator Mussolini, built to draw the 1944 Olympic games (which were instead canceled due to WW II. The complex was renamed Foro Italico after the war (at the end of which he and his mistress were executed and their bodies publicly hung on display).

Reopened in December 1950, the project faltered with scarcity of funds and finally, in 1951 under architect Annibale Vitellozzi the stadium was completed and could hold 100,000 people. It was known as Stadio dei Centomila when in May 1953 it was inaugurated with a football match between Italy and Hungary. The stadium was renamed for the 1960 Olympics.

Google Maps is a great way to view the site, including the ornate Stadio dei Marmi designed to resemble an ancient Greek stadium and ringed by 60 marble statues of athletes which can hold 20,000 spectators. You can still see the controversial example of Fascist architecture, the Obelisco del Foro Italico, a large obelisk at the entrance to the Foro Italico that was erected to honor Mussolini in 1932.

Here you can watch a historic reel on the opening of the forum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lbe5MjFo5wE

Today you can buy a single ticket to a soccer game for from 40 Euros to 120 Euros. But the official website describes a difficult trip to get to games. No easy public transit! An 18-minute car ride north from the Colosseum, using toll roads. As the complex is outside the center of Rome, the best way to visit is on a guided tour of Rome’s Fascist architecture that includes transportation to the Foro Italico and back into central Rome. 

I read that the complex is a stop on many Palermo Segway, walking, and biking tours, but I could not find a Segway tour that includes it. Which might be okay, because while in Rome on a Segway tour, I wiped out and was injured (my left side badly sprained and scraped). I had enjoyed riding Segways in other cities. I blame the cobblestones, the magnificent sights, and the honking drivers for distracting me! So, beware.

One of the most interesting facts of the 1960 Summer Games was that Shambel Abebe Bikila won the marathon, the first Ethiopian Olympic gold medalist. He won running barefoot! Here’s a clip: https://olympics.com/en/video/abebe-bikila-barefoot-to-olympic-gold
He also won the gold in 1964, while wearing shoes.

Another interesting and sad fact:  Cyclist Knud Enemark Jensen died competing in the 100 km team race, when he collapsed and fell in 40-degree Celsius heat, fracturing his skull. Knud is listed as only the second Olympian to die during competition.

The first athlete to die during competition was Francisco Lazaro, a Portuguese marathon runner at the 1912 games in Stockholm, Sweden. While it was also believed he died of heat stroke, later it was found that he had covered parts of his body with suet, to avoid sunburn and be faster. This prevented him from sweating normally and overheated him.

For Jensen too, the first official cause of death was heatstroke, but his doctor admitted to giving Jensen and his teammates a vasodilator before the race. Because of the controversy about the real cause of Jensen’s death, the Olympic Committee mandated drug tests be performed on all athletes, and this was in place by the time of the 1968 Winter and Summer Olympics. In 1960 the Soviet Union won the most medals (103 including 43 gold, to the USA’s 71 total.) I wonder if the medal count would have been different if drug testing was already in place.