60° Alpe Adria Weightlifting Tournament

Marcello Zoratti

who passed away in 2023, is unanimously recognized as the “father” of Regional, Italian, and European Weightlifting during the second half of the last century. He served for more than 25 years as Vice President of both the Italian Weightlifting Federation and the European Weightlifting Federation.

He was one of the visionary pioneers who helped transform Lignano into the “City of Sport” of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. In 1981, he organized the European and World Weightlifting Championships there. Following the outstanding organizational success of those events, the championships were awarded to the same city again just three years later Lignano in 1984 the only time in the history of international weightlifting that such a distinction has been granted. In the years that followed, Zoratti organized a remarkable series of prestigious international weightlifting events in the seaside resort, including the 23rd Alpe Adria International Weightlifting Tournament in 1987 and the European Promotion Cup in 1997.