Farewell to Tizzano, 2 Olympic gold medals in rowing and America's Cup sailor

The following year he became world champion in the Maxi Yacht class. In 2007 in Valencia he returned to compete in the Louis Vuitton Cup, as part of the Mascalzone Latino crew. After his career as an athlete, he switched to management, finding brilliant insights and new racing formats.

One of the ideas he was most proud of was the creation of the 'Reggia Challenge Cup': a challenge between rowing crews from Oxford and Cambridge held in the Dolphin Fountain of the Royal Palace of Caserta. A competition that, for the first time, linked sport and the beauty of a unique place in the world. He was also very active as an environmentalist for the protection of Italy's marine and river heritage.

He had held various roles, including director of the Coni Olympic preparation centre in Formia, before becoming president of the Italian Rowing Federation. Since 2021, he was also president of the International Committee of the Mediterranean Games.

By a twist of fate, Tizzano died on the day the Olympic torch arrived in Taranto, the next venue for the event, scheduled for late August 2026. An event, in its twentieth edition, about which in recent weeks he himself had expressed concern about delays in the organisation and fine-tuning of the facilities.

As a former participant, however, he had greeted the arrival of the America's Cup in Naples with great joy: "I am overjoyed, as a man of sport, of the sea and as a Neapolitan," he had said, not hiding his surprise at the choice. "Davide Tizzano's passing leaves an unbridgeable void in the heart of our city," said the mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi. "We are not only losing an immense champion, but a man who was able to embody the noblest values of sport, a point of reference for entire generations of athletes and a pride for all Neapolitans.