brought the “flying saucers” to Italy – Corriere.it

He went quietly like the Frisbees he tossed into the air, Valentino De Chiara. He was 82 years old, was hospitalized at RSA in Milan, and contracted Covid. It was in 1972 that he fell in love with flying saucers, while in the United States: back, he imported the discipline to Italy. Was the first national champion, capable of surprising with surprising evolutions. He also became the coach and soul of the Frisbee Temple, a center located in the heart of Barona Park with the first dedicated museum, a training area and a stadium where he organized free sports courses for suburban children. It was called the Temple by some Americans who landed on a visit to the Barona, because Valentino breathed new life into the deconsecrated church near the park by creating the museum.recalls Francesco Santolin, 30, an athlete who took the lead and leads the Italian Frisbee association that he founded and chaired to the end.

Victory

In 2007, his trio of students amazingly snatched the world freestyle title from undefeated Americans: It was a great emotion, Valentino has put at our disposal for years the structure to train even in winter, there were no other similar spaces, a visionary state, says Antonio Cusma, one of the three champions and a great athlete until today.

Inventions

Eclectic and powerful, De Chiara was also an inventor. In 1976 he had patented the condor, a kind of boomerang with a stick in the middle., then a hammock that, through a game of balance, knew how to lean on a single tree and finally the meteor, a donut with a hole capable of reaching unthinkable distances. He had adopted the Andrea Campagna park, in the Barona, which at the beginning of the century was left to itself between the underworld and the wasteland – Francesco still remembers -. With the boys of the association he cleaned it and planted posters as a reminder of the value of a healthy life in the middle of nature. I ran every day in the park, in a year I had added a thousand kilometers, He says. Two years ago, the Freestyle Players Association even inducted him into the Hall of Fame created in Calumet, a Michigan town of 700 – it was a huge celebration of his coronation in America, with competitions, beer, and cold cuts at the place he preferred: the temple. Of Salerno origin, Valentino De Chiara had three children, eight grandchildren and nine siblings.