Angelo Groppelli

Angelo Groppelli was born in Varese, Lombardy, on 12 July 1946. He was introduced to athletics by the coach Gianni Bellorini. He started out as a discus thrower before switching to the shot put, a choice the Varese newspaper Prealpina later described as an inspired one. His first club was Biumense, after which he moved to Pro Patria Milano.

In 1972 Groppelli joined Atletica Riccardi Milano, where he spent the best years of his career and became, in the club's words, an icon of its throwing tradition. Between 1975 and 1980 he won seven Italian senior titles in the shot put: outdoors in 1975, 1978, 1979 and 1980 and indoors in 1976, 1979 and 1980. He earned 28 caps for the Italian national team between 1972 and 1981; only Alfredo Rizzo made more international appearances for Riccardi.

He competed at the European Championships in Rome in 1974, where he threw 18.06 metres in qualifying and placed 17th, and in Prague in 1978, where he threw 18.04 metres and was again 17th. At the 1978 European Indoor Championships in Milan he finished tenth with 18.45 metres.

Groppelli equalled or improved the Italian record with the 16 pound shot three times. One of those records was 19.20 metres in Bergamo on 3 June 1978, which stood until August of that year, before the era of his rivalry with Marco Montelatici, who later took the record to 20.13 metres.

His personal best of 20.03 metres came on 8 June 1979 in Turin, in an international match between Italy and Poland, when he passed the 20 metre barrier by three centimetres. The mark has remained the Atletica Riccardi club record ever since and, at his death, still ranked 12th or 13th on the Italian all time list. Indoors his best was 19.77 metres in 1980. At the Riccardi club's Pasqua dell'Atleta meeting in 1980 he defeated Montelatici, Luciano De Santis and the young Alessandro Andrei, who later set a world record.

Groppelli was born and died in Varese. He was married to Maria, and they had two children, Giosiana and Alberto, and four grandchildren. Little else about his life away from athletics has been published.

Angelo Groppelli died in Varese at the age of 80. The exact date of his death has not been made public. Atletica Riccardi Milano published its announcement in the first minutes of 14 October 2026, the Lombardy committee of the Italian athletics federation (FIDAL Lombardia) issued its tribute the same day, and Prealpina reported that his funeral was held on Wednesday 14 October in the farewell hall of the crematorium in Varese. He therefore died on or shortly before 14 October, the date used by Italian and Spanish Wikipedia and on this page. No cause of death was reported.

The national federation, FIDAL, called his death a loss for Italian athletics, and its president Stefano Mei sent condolences to the family. FIDAL Lombardia president Luca Barzaghi and the Riccardi club, led by its president Sergio Tammaro, also paid tribute.

Groppelli is remembered as one of the most decorated shot putters Lombardy has produced and as a central figure in the Italian shot put of the 1970s. His 20.03 metres from 1979 has stood as the Atletica Riccardi record for 47 years, and his seven national titles and three national records place him among the leading Italian throwers of his generation.