Daniele Masala

Daniele Masala, born 12 February 1955 in Rome is a former Italian modern pentathlete who became Olympic champion in 1984 in the individual and team classification. The 1.75 m tall and 64 kg heavy Roman is a police officer and sports teacher. Masala is married.

Masala first participated at the Olympics in 1976. Eight years later, he was on the Italian team which won a gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. He also became individual Olympic champion in 1984. At the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Masala took tenth place in the individual classification. Together with Massullo and Gianluca Tiberti, Masala won silver behind Hungary in the team classification.

In addition to his Olympic successes, Masala's World Championship record is also respectable: He won gold (1982) and silver (1981) in five starts from 1977 to 1982. In 1979 he won the bronze medal at the World Championships in Budapest. In 1980, the Olympic boycott prevented the policeman from starting in Moscow. At the 1981 World Cup in Zielona Góra, the 1976 Polish Olympic champion Janusz Pyciak-Peciak won with 5662 points and 13 points ahead of Masala in the singles, the Italian team won bronze behind Poland and Hungary. In 1982 the World Championship took place in Rome. Masala won the title with 249 points ahead of 1980 Olympic champion Anatoli Starostin, the team again finished third.

Daniele Masala has been one of the world's best modern pentathletes for a decade. He has competed in the Italian national team about fifty times. In addition to his international medals, Daniele Masala won 24 Italian national championships, ten of them in individual competitions.