Ugo Sansonetti


Ugo Sansonetti, nicknamed Matusalesto, was an Italian writer and masters athlete.

Biography

He is the current world record holder in the M85 200 metres and M90 400 metres. He is famous throughout Italy for his appearance as a spry athlete in a Coca-Cola and a Barilla advertisement.
Born in Rome, Italy, he was the son of Admiral Luigi Sansonetti. From 2011 he lived in Rome, has ten children, 25 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren. He has a degree in law and was a pioneer cavalry officer. He was an honorary citizen of Costa Rica, where he led a company doing agricultural colonization in the fifties. Among his writings is curating Emigranti alla conquista della foresta, which promotes that colonization of Costa Rica.
In the seventies he directed and helped to lift a European frozen foods manufacturer that would later become known as Findus.
In 1991 he was appointed Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and in 2006 received the Star of Merit for his work.

First octogenarian in zero gravity

In 2005, at the age of 86 years, he participated in project SpaceLand Sansonetti, a flight in a weightless environment on a Boeing 727 -200. Starting from Bordeaux, France, it was the first parabolic flight to accommodate ordinary citizens, and the first to bring on board an octogenarian.

Masters athletics

As an athlete, he claimed to have won 70 medals, 42 of them gold. In addition to the outdoor world records, he holds several indoor world records in the M90 60 metres, M85 and M90 200 metres and M90 400 metres. He has won several World Masters Athletics Championships. Here is a of him winning the 100 metres at the 2009 World Championships in Lahti, Finland.

Works

Author:
Curator:
Introducing: Herzel G. Weizmann, Emigranti alla conquista della foresta. Promoted Italian colonization in Costa Rica: San Vito de Java, Franco Angeli, 1985.