Nebiolo, Primo

▪ 2000

      Italian sports administrator who, as the ambitious head (1969–89) of the Italian Athletics Federation and the powerful and autocratic president (from 1981) of the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF), weathered scandals and controversies involving an allegedly rigged result, cost overruns, the use of performance-enhancing drugs by athletes, and the problems involved with amateurism versus professionalism; he turned the IAAF from a small group with an annual budget of $50,000 into a massive international force with a $40 million budget funded largely by sponsorship fees and television broadcasting contracts (b. July 14, 1923, Turin, Italy—d. Nov. 7, 1999, Rome, Italy).

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