Luciano Buonfiglio: the new face of CONI between sport and management
Luciano Buonfiglio, former Olympic canoeist and successful manager, is the new president of CONI. With a brilliant sporting career and extensive experience in the insurance and banking sectors, he aims to lead Coni to new successes through evolution and constant improvement
2' min read
2' min read
The new president of CONI, Luciano Buonfiglio, will lead the Italian Olympic movement until Los Angeles 2028, leaving the Canoe and Kayak Federation, which he had led since 2005.
Buonfiglio was born in Naples in 1950 and began swimming and sailing at the Circolo Nautico Posillipo. When he moved with his family to Milan at the age of fifteen, he opted for canoeing, a discipline that gave him considerable satisfaction. He joined the Gruppo Sportivo Fiamme Oro and was called up for the national team, collecting 36 appearances. After becoming Italian Champion on several occasions, he took part in five World Championships and the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montréal in the K-4 speciality.
As a sports executive, Buonfiglio served in the Italian Canoe Kayak Federation as councillor, vice-president and then president, contributing to the sector's growth, with over 20,000 registered members more than trebling, accounts in order, Olympic medals and a new federal centre financed by the Pnrr. Since 2009 he has been treasurer of the International Canoe Federation, of which he is also vice-president, and from 2013 to 2018 he was vice-president of the Olympic Committee during Malagò's first term.
Outside sport, the new Coni president has worked in insurance and banking, holding several prestigious positions, president of the Ania technical section from 1985 to 2003, central director of Banca Popolare di Bari from 2004 to 2012 and central corporate director at Ras/Allianz.
"We must be protagonists on a path of evolution. I do not like the word change, I like to evolve and my thoughts go to the athletes who have stamped our shield on their chests. Coni should not be changed, but it must always be improved,' Buonfiglio had said shortly before being elected, during his speech to the National Council. The history we have lived through has always made us proud. We are pleasantly condemned to keep on winning, that is the only way we can make people talk about us. What should we do then? Meanwhile, coordinate with the government and Sport and Health for a four-year strategic plan. That is why we have devised the departments, each of you will be involved to produce initiatives that we have sometimes suffered. We have the strength and competence to be protagonists and to propose those initiatives that must ensure that Coni is always a protagonist in the world'.
