Peppo Biscarini is an Italian-American swimmer,

freediver Freediving, free-diving, free diving, breath-hold diving, or skin diving is a form of underwater diving that relies on breath-holding until resurfacing rather than the use of breathing apparatus such as scuba gear. Besides the limits of breath- ...

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

and evangelist. He represented both Italy and the United States in various international competitions and also won many titles. After retiring from his athletic career, he had a long stint as coach and entrepreneur. Later in life he responded to a higher calling and directed his life towards evangelism.

Early life

Biscarini was born in Milan on November 4, 1960, to Sergio Biscarini, an opera singer, and Griffi Clotilde, an obstetrician. He moved to the United States in 1979 to train for the 1984 Olympics in

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

as well as to study. In 1999, he returned to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

and opened the first Hedgefund marketing firm.

Personal life

In 1987, he married Jane in

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Co ...

and the couple have two children, Isabella and Marco.

Career

Swimming

Biscarini started his swimming career at the age of 5 and participated at his first age group Nationals at the age of 10. In May 1976, at the age of 15 years, Peppo won the World Championship in

finswimming Finswimming is an underwater sport consisting of four techniques involving swimming with the use of fins either on the water's surface using a snorkel with either monofins or bifins or underwater with monofin either by holding one's breath or ...

marathon (24 hours), setting a new world record of 83.7 km by breaking the previous world record of 70.3 km. In 1980, he introduced for the first time in the US the

monofin A monofin is a type of swimfin typically used in underwater sports such as finswimming, free-diving and underwater orienteering. It consists of a single or linked surfaces attached to both of the diver's feet, emulating the fluke of Cetacean ...

and the front-mounted snorkel starting a working relationship with coach Thornton at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...

and was credited as the person who introduced the sport of finswimming -the monofin and front-mounted snorkels- until then unknown, to North America. Biscarini was also the member of the Italian National Team at the European finswimming championship. In 1987, he was named US national technical director for the sport of finswimming by the Underwater Society of America, member of the USOC and controlling body for finswimming in the United States. He often writes for ''Pesca Sub'', an Italian speciality magazine. In 1989, he founded Hyperfin, a high tech fin manufacturing company, and worked as a technical consultant with swimming programs at various division 1 universities. In 1978, he became the Italian National champion in the open water swimming and represented Italy to the

FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships The FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships, or more commonly "Open Water Worlds", was a bi-annual FINA championship for open water swimming held in even years from 2000 to 2010, inclusive. Race distances were 5, 10, and 25 kilometers (also kno ...

Capri-Napoli in 1979. Biscarini is also a speaker at the World Clinic for swimming coaches, Chicago 1995. Integrated techniques of finswimming for the benefit of high-level swimming, tolerance training and swimming with front snorkels. Biscarini also served as the technical consultant to Lockheed Martin underwater division to develop a human-powered submarine. From 1992 to 1996, he trained the

US Navy Seals The United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, are the U.S. Navy's primary special operations force and a component of the Naval Special Warfare Command. Among the SEALs' main functions are conducting sm ...

team for the

International Military Sports Council The International Military Sports Council (IMSC) or Conseil International du Sport Militaire (CISM), is an international sports association, established in 1948 and headquartered in Brussels. It is the world's second-largest multi-discipline sport ...

(CISM) Military World Games.

Evangelist and life coach

After 15 years of business as an entrepreneur and

hedge fund A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as s ...

marketer with the 1st Internet firm in this business, he was recruited by Campus Crusade for Christ. Biscarini pursued theological studies while living and ministering to influencers in Palm Beach, Florida from 2000 to 2004. He then returned to Italy and served as the National Director of GEM from 2004 to 2011. He also preached in different churches and nonprofit organizations. and wrote a manual for basic Christianity: "Quale via, verità, vita?". In 2012, he established ViaVeritas Inc as an international tool for evangelism and an instrument for cross-cultural student exchanges. He also created
sister city
relationship between

Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020 ...

, and

Manfredonia Manfredonia is a town and commune of Apulia, Italy, in the province of Foggia, from which it is northeast by rail. Manfredonia is situated on the coast, facing east, to the south of Monte Gargano, and gives its name to the gulf to the east of ...

, Italy, with the approval of the respective mayors and the

Sister City A sister city or a twin town relationship is a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties. While there are early examples of inter ...

association in March 2014. He has an Italian podcas
Peppo Pod
discussing everyday occurrences in light of an eternal plan and a bilingual (English Italian) weekly YouTube videocas
PeppoCast

Awards

Representative and best US athlete at the Freediving World Cup in 1998 (

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

-Italy) with national records of constant weight (51 mt), dynamic swim (125 mt) and static breath hold (5 min.39 sec). AIDA and PADI freediving instructor

Television

* Modeling career started in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

with Artist Management and in Italy with Fashion Model * Between 1984 and 1989 appears in numerous national TV commercials like

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlant ...

, Hilton, Sprint,

Anheuser-Busch Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC is an American brewing company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 2008, it has been wholly owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV ( AB InBev), now the world's largest brewing company, which owns multiple ...

, Unocal 76, '' Wheel of Fortune''; in the TV soaps ''

Capitol A capitol, named after the Capitoline Hill in Rome, is usually a legislative building where a legislature meets and makes laws for its respective political entity. Specific capitols include: * United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. * Numerous ...

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

, in the movie ''Dolphin Whales and Us'', and in Italy in the movie ''Italian Fast Food''.

References

External links

Official site for evangelist work

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Biscarini, Peppo American male swimmers American male actors 1960 births Living people Italian emigrants to the United States Italian male swimmers Finswimmers