Generali and sports was the theme of the last convivial gathering of Panathlon Club Trieste, held on 14 March. On this occasion, the Generali Archive and some of its iconic documents were also presented to the participants.

Great enthusiasm and interest were sparked by the “marathon” through the various archive sources that testify to Generali’s interest in sports over the years. An interest that takes shape both internally, by promoting the activity of the Company Club, and externally, through the sponsorship of major sporting events and athletes, as well as the provision of insurance coverage.

Sports have offered, and still offer, interesting opportunities for promotional initiatives to both companies and their employees, as a pleasant way to spend their free time supporting a healthy lifestyle and developing “team spirit”. This vision has always been part of Generali, as it has been throughout Italy, starting from the interwar period.

The first milestone was set in 1933, with the establishment of the Circolo aziendale (the Company Club) at the historic Palazzo Stratti in Piazza Unità d’Italia, which soon became a receptacle of recreational-creative, cultural and above all sporting activities.

The athletes of the Circolo Generali have distinguished themselves over the years in various sport disciplines, such as basketball, tennis, sailing, athletics, skiing, bocce… both in regional competitions, such as the City of Trieste athletics trophy, and in various international and intra Group tournaments.

Unforgettable were the first “historical” sponsorships of the 1930s and 1940s, such as the Agendina del calcio, the first real football yearbook, and the Campionato del Mare (the sea championship), a well-known rowing competition organized in Venice; not to mention the great events of the 1990s, such as the Bavisela, both a competitive and amateur road race, and the Coppa d’Autunno (autumn cup), also known as the “Barcolana”, the most attended sailing regatta in Europe, which represents the main sporting event in Trieste, which promote its image around the world.

And what about Generali’s core business, i. e. the insurance of individual athletes? The first meaningful source of information related to sport sponsorship coverages dates back to the 1950s, as appears in the column “Galleria degli assicurati” (the vault of insureds) in the historic Company magazine «Bollettino». The first “illustrious insured” athlete is the skier Zeno Colò, a world and Olympic downhill champion.

The greatest appreciation of the audience in the hall came after a gem of the Archive was revealed: the first chairman of Panathlon Trieste (for three consecutive terms, from 1957 to 1962) was a Generali employee, i. e. Antonio Marussi, a world-renowned scientist ranking among the most regarded geodesists of the 20^th century.