‘King of the Volunteers’ gets spotlight at Olympics
VERONA, ITALY—When Mario Gargiulo traveled to the 1956 Cortina Winter Games, his first trip to northern Italy from his hometown of Naples, the 20-year-old never imagined he’d return to the Olympics.
But he has, 70 years later, this time as the so-called “King of the Volunteers.” He was among the first of 18,000 volunteers to sign up and, on Sunday in Verona, the 89-year-old will take the stage of the Olympics closing ceremony with a starring role: the Games’ oldest volunteer.
“To be part of it is incredible,” he told The Associated Press (AP) on Sunday morning, hours before the ceremony at the ancient Roman Arena that’s a short walk from his home. “I’ll wake up tomorrow and I’ll be wondering what happened to me.”
“It’s beyond imagination,” he said.
When Gargiulo turned up for the first meeting of volunteers in Verona, he stood out.
“They were all 20, 25 years old, girls and boys, and they were looking at me sort of strange,” he said, laughing.
But the widowed father of three and grandfather of seven who has led a globetrotting life embodies the Olympic spirit.
‘Common tie’
His 1956 train ride to Cortina d’Ampezzo was his first journey north of Rome, and his first trip alone. Only able to afford a room without heat during the Winter Games, he went to sleep wearing every layer of clothing he’d brought.
The village known as “Queen of the Dolomites” today is a luxury resort replete with upscale fashion boutiques, in part due to the spotlight brought by the 1956 Olympics. At the time, it was small, quiet and little known beyond Italy’s upper crust. Gargiulo relished the chance to watch figure skating and speedskating.
“I was astounded because seeing all these flags, people of different countries,” he said. “Sport is a common tie for everybody. And after awhile, even if you don’t know anything about the sport you’re watching, the competition, you become a fan.”
He enjoyed the Cortina so much that, after he married an American woman, they honeymooned there.
He later enlisted in the US Army. Over the course of his 27-year military career, his language skills led him to serve across the United States as well as in Korea, Vietnam, Germany and Russia before retiring in 1994 as a lieutenant colonel.
