Daniele Meucci (born 7 October 1985) is an Italian athlete who specialises in

long-distance running Long-distance running, or endurance running, is a form of continuous running over distances of at least . Physiologically, it is largely aerobic in nature and requires stamina as well as mental strength. Within endurance running come two di ...

, including

track running Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

, cross country and

road running Road running is the sport of running on a measured course over an established road. This differs from track and field on a regular track and cross country running over natural terrain. These events are usually classified as long-distance ru ...

who won twenty medals at international level (seventeen at

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

level and three at youth level). He represented Italy at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, running in the

5000 metres The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a sta ...

and

10,000 metres The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship-level events. The ...

. Meucci is a three-time medallist in the latter event at the

European Athletics Championships The European Athletics Championships is a biennial (from 2010) athletics event organised by the European Athletic Association and is recognised as the elite continental outdoor athletics championships for Europe. Editions First held, for me ...

, having won bronze in 2010 and 2016 and silver in 2012. He was also a bronze medallist at the

European Cross Country Championships The European Cross Country Championships is an annual international cross country running competition. Organised by the European Athletic Association, it is the area championships for the region and is held in December each year. The championship ...

in 2012. He has competed at five

World Championships in Athletics The World Athletics Championships, known as the IAAF World Championships in Athletics until 2019, are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics, formerly International Association of Athletics Federations. Alongside Olympic ...

(2009 and 2011 in the 5000 m, 2011, 2013 and 2017 in the 10000 m and 2015 in the marathon).

Biography

Early career

Born in

Pisa Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...

, he began competing internationally in 2006 and was fourteen at the European Cup 10000m and improved to tenth place in the

10000 metres The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship-level events. The ...

at the

2006 European Athletics Championships The 19th European Athletics Championships were held in Gothenburg, Sweden, between 7 August and 13 August 2006. The competition arena was the Ullevi Stadium and the official motto "Catch the Spirit". Gothenburg also hosted the 1995 World Champions ...

. He won a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

and a team

silver medal A silver medal, in sports and other similar areas involving competition, is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, ...

at under-23 level at that year's

, which was held in

San Giorgio su Legnano San Giorgio su Legnano (Legnanese dialect, Legnanese: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Milan in the Italy, Italian region Lombardy, located about northwest of Milan. San Giorgio su Legnano borders the following municip ...

. The following year he was sixth at the 2007 European Cup 10000m in

Ferrara Ferrara (; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, capital of the province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main ...

and won the 10,000 m bronze at the

2007 European Athletics U23 Championships The 6th European Athletics U23 Championships were held between 12 and 15 July 2007 in the Gyulai István Athletic Stadium in Debrecen, Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpath ...

. He represented Italy on the world stage for the first time in 2008, but he only managed 99th place in the senior race at the

2008 IAAF World Cross Country Championships The 2008 IAAF World Cross Country Championships took place on March 30, 2008. The races were held at the Holyrood Park in Edinburgh, United Kingdom. Four races took place, one for men, women, junior men and junior women respectively. All race ...

. He had greater success at European level that year, again taking sixth in the European Cup race and finishing twelfth in the senior race at the

2008 European Cross Country Championships The 15th European Cross Country Championships were held at Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and langu ...

. Meucci took up

in 2009 and was fifth at the Stramilano Half Marathon with a time of 1:02:56. He returned to the track in the summer and took on the shorter

3000 metres The 3000 metres or 3000-metre run is a track running event, also commonly known as the "3K" or "3K run", where 7.5 laps are run around an outdoor 400 m track, or 15 laps around a 200 m indoor track. It is debated whether the 3000 m sho ...

at the

2009 European Team Championships The first European Athletics Team Championships took place on 20 and 21 June 2009. The track and field athletics tournament run by European Athletics was the successor of the old European Cup (athletics), European Cup competition which was held a ...

, winning a bronze medal. Two months later he competed on the global track stage for the first time but he did not progress out of the

heats at the

2009 World Championships in Athletics The 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () were held in Berlin, Germany from 15 to 23 August 2009. The majority of events took place in the Olympiastadion, while the marathon and racewalking events started and finished at the Brandenbu ...

. Demonstrating his versatility over different surfaces, he was 18th at the 2009 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships on the streets of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

in October (recording a personal best 1:02:43) and led the Italians to the team bronze with a ninth-place finish at the

2009 European Cross Country Championships The 2009 European Cross Country Championships was a continental cross country running competition that was held on 13 December 2009 near Dublin city, Fingal in Ireland. Dublin was selected as the host city in 2007 and the event was the first time ...

Prime and later years

The Italian slightly improved his half marathon best with a 1:02:41 run for fifth at the 2010 Roma Ostia Half Marathon, and he ran his first full-length

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There ...

at the

Rome City Marathon The Rome Marathon is an annual marathon competition hosted by the city of Rome, Italy. History The competition has also doubled as the Italian Marathon championships on two occasions; in 1983 and 1986. The race date was shifted from the t ...

soon after, where he was eleventh overall. He won his first major medal later that year at the

2010 European Athletics Championships The 2010 European Athletics Championships were the 20th edition of the European Athletics Championships, organised under the supervision of the European Athletic Association. They were held at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys in Barcelona, C ...

. In the men's 10,000 m he headed to the line after winner

Mo Farah Sir Mohamed Muktar Jama Farah (born Hussein Abdi Kahin; 23 March 1983) is a Somali-British former long-distance runner. Considered one of the greatest runners of all time, his ten global championship gold medals (four Olympic and six World tit ...

, but Chris Thompson just pipped Meucci at the line, leaving the Italian with a bronze medal. The following year he managed only eleventh in the 3000 m at the

2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy in Paris, France, from 4 to 6 March 2011. 577 athletes representing 46 countries competed at the championships. Twenty-six track and field events we ...

He was beaten to the 2011 national title in the 5000 m by

Stefano La Rosa Stefano La Rosa (born 28 September 1985 in Grosseto) is an Italian long-distance runner. He is a five-time Italian champion (twice over 10,000 metres and three times over 5000 metres). Biography Of Sicilian descent, as a junior athlete, he came 5 ...

, but set a personal best in the 10,000 m as a guest at the UK Championships, completing the distance in a time of 27:44.50 minutes. He represented Italy in both long-distance track events at the

2011 World Championships in Athletics The 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () was an international athletics competition that was held in Daegu, South Korea. It started on 27 August 2011 and finished on 4 September 2011. The United States topped the medal standings in the ...

, coming twelfth over 10,000 m and tenth in the 5000 m. After the championships, a half marathon best (1:02:30 hours) came at the Udine Half Marathon and then he was runner-up behind Edwin Soi at the Giro al Sas 10K race. He began 2012 with a third-place finish at the

Great Ireland Run The Great Ireland Run is an annual 10-kilometre road running competition which is held in Phoenix Park, Dublin, Ireland in mid-April. It is part of the Great Run series of athletics competitions. It is sponsored by SPAR and features both an el ...

. In April 2012 he set his new personal best on 10,000 m in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

, with time 27:32.86 and qualified for 2012 Olympic team. A month later he ran in the UAE Healthy Kidney 10K road race in New York and was a surprise winner in 28:28 minutes – a personal best. He ran in both the 5000 m and 10,000 m at the

2012 European Athletics Championships The 2012 European Athletics Championships were held in Helsinki, Finland between 27 June and 1 July 2012. This edition marks the beginning of a new two-year cycle of the European Athletics Championships which were previously held every four years. ...

: although he came fifth over the shorter distance, he managed a 10,000 m silver medal behind Kenyan-born

Polat Kemboi Arıkan Polat Kemboi Arıkan (born 12 December 1990 in Cheptiret, Kenya) is a Turkish Long-distance running, long-distance runner of Kenyan origin competing in the 3000 metres, 3000 m and 5000 metres, 5000 m events. (September 2011 – July 2015) The t ...

. He also doubled up at the

2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, where he was eliminated in the 5000 m and ranked 24th in the 10,000 m. In August he ran personal bests on the

2012 IAAF Diamond League The 2012 IAAF Diamond League (also known as the 2012 Samsung Diamond League for sponsorship purposes) was the third edition of the Diamond League, an annual series of fourteen one-day track and field meetings. The series began on 11 May in Doha, Q ...

circuit, running 7:41.74 for the 3000 m at the

DN Galan BAUHAUS-galan, formerly known as DN-Galan is an annual, international athletics meeting that takes place at the Olympic Stadium in Stockholm. Previously it was one of the five IAAF Super Grand Prix events until 2010, and has since been part of th ...

and 8:28.28 minutes for the

Two miles The 2 mile (3,520 yards, 10,560 feet, or exactly 3,218.688 metres) is a historic running distance. Like the mile run, it is still contested at some invitational meets due its historical chronology in the United States and United Ki ...

at the Birmingham Grand Prix. His season ended with two further European medals at the 2012 European Cross Country Championships, where he was the bronze medallist individually and in the team competition, alongside the race winner

Andrea Lalli Andrea Lalli (born 20 May 1987 in Florence) is an Italian long-distance runner. Biography He started his career with medals at the European Cross Country Championships, taking the junior individual and team titles at the 2006 European Cross Coun ...

. He knocked almost a minute and a half off his best at the 2013

NYC Half Marathon The New York City Half Marathon (branded as the United Airlines NYC Half) is an annual half marathon road running race from Brooklyn's Prospect Park to Manhattan's Central Park via the Manhattan Bridge, held since 2006. It passes through or ...

, coming second only to

Wilson Kipsang Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich (born 15 March 1982) is a Kenyan professional athlete who specialises in long-distance running, competing in events ranging from 10 km to the marathon. He was the bronze medallist in the marathon at the 2012 Summer O ...

in a time of 61:06 minutes. At the 2014 European Championships, he finished in 6th in the 10000 m and won the men's marathon. At the 2015 World Championships, he competed in the marathon, finishing in 8th place. In 2019, he competed in the men's marathon at the

2019 World Athletics Championships The 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships () was the seventeenth edition of the biennial, global sport of athletics, athletics competition organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), since renamed World Athleti ...

held in Doha, Qatar. He did not finish his race. He finished 8th in the 2023 New York City Marathon, running 2:13:29.

Personal bests

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1500-metre run is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletics since 1983. It is equivalent to 1.5 kilomet ...

: 3:47.32 (2006) *

: 7:41.74 (2012) *

: 8:28.28 (2012) *

: 13:19.00 (2012) *

: 27:32.86 (2012) *

10 Km 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

: 28:08 (2020) - national record *

Half marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish, or shortcu ...

: 1:01:05 (2013) *

Marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There ...

: 2:10:45 (2018)

Achievements

National titles

He won 10 national championships at senior level. *

Italian Athletics Championships The Italian Athletics Championships () are the national championships in Athletics (sport), athletics, organised every year by the Federazione Italiana di Atletica Leggera. The first edition, four races only, was held in 1906 at Arena Civica in ...

**5000 m: 2007, 2008 (2) **10,000 m: 2006, 2007, 2010 (3) **Half marathon: 2014 (1) *

Italian Athletics Indoor Championships The Italian Athletics Indoor Championships () are the national championships in athletics of the indoor events, organised every year by the Federazione Italiana di Atletica Leggera from 1970 (first edition was held in Genoa). Titles assigned conce ...

**3000 m: 2008, 2009 (2) *

Italian Cross Country Championships The Italian Cross Country Championships () is an annual cross country running competition that serves as Italy's national championship for the sport. It is usually held in February or March. It was first held in 1908 and featured a men's long cours ...

**Long race: 2011, 2017 (2)

References

External links

*
Daniele Meucci
at the

Paris 2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

Daniele Meucci – CONI – Paris 2024
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meucci, Daniele 1985 births Living people Sportspeople from Pisa Athletes from Tuscany Italian male cross country runners Italian male long-distance runners Italian male marathon runners Athletics competitors of Gruppo Sportivo Esercito Olympic athletes for Italy Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics European Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics Championships athletes for Italy Athletes (track and field) at the 2013 Mediterranean Games Mediterranean Games competitors for Italy Italian Athletics Championships winners Athletes (track and field) at the 2024 Summer Olympics 21st-century Italian sportsmen

Biography

Early career

Prime and later years

Personal bests

Achievements

National titles

See also

References

External links