Italian Olympic legend backs #TargetEbola

4 | 12 | 2014

Triple Olympic Gold Medallist, Klaus Dibiasi, has joined the WOA’s #TargetEbola fundraising campaign. The Italian diving legend is using his profile to urge his fellow athletes and members of the public to get behind the cause in order to raise awareness and funds to fight the spread of Ebola in West Africa.

#TargetEbola was launched in October by the WOA, in conjunction with international humanitarian organisations Oxfam and Medisend, to deliver much needed supplies to help combat the disease in West Africa.

Dibiasi, a household name in his native Italy, won a silver medal in the 10m platform at the 1964 Olympic Games before going on to win gold in the same event in 1968, 1972 and 1976. He is the only Olympic diver to have won three successive gold medals and the only diver to have won medals at four Olympic Games.

His dedication to his sport has seen him attend a further seven Olympic Games first as national coach from 1980-1996 then as a team leader in 2004 and 2008 and finally as team director at London 2012.  

Dibiasi continues to spread the ideals of Olympism through his work as a founder and director of one of Italy’s top diving schools, Associazione Sportiva Dilettantistica (ASD) Carlo Dibiasi, with his wife Laura Schermi, also a champion Italian diver. The school is named after Dibiasi’s father and coach who represented Italy in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games and was considered a pioneer of the sport of diving. 

Dibiasi joins a high-profile list of World Olympians who are already supporting the #TargetEbola campaign, including  Usain Bolt, Novak Djokovic, HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco, Carl Lewis, Sergey Bubka, Claudia Bokel, Hicham el Guerrouj, Koji Murofushi and Pernilla Wiberg.

World Rugby, SportAccord and the sports business networking platform, iSportConnect have also backed the campaign.

The WOA is appealing to the rest of its 100,000 strong Olympian community and the wider sporting family around the world to get involved and promote #TargetEbola, the donation link, www.targetebola.org/donate, and the SMS details, Text TARGET to 70066 [UK only], by posting selfies via social media.

 The #TargetEbola selfie kit can be downloaded here: www.targetebola.org/selfie