“In my life I am a looser, I run for vengeance – Io corro per Vendetta”
Marco Olmo is a living legend of extreme running. He started late, when the others started to stop. In his “previous lives”, as he says, he has been a farmer, a truck driver and a worker in his village’s cement plant. He is now 66 years old and keeps on running international races
Marco is from Robilante, a little municipality of the Piemont Region in north-western Italy. Born into a peasant family, when he was twenty he left the countryside to work in the town’s cement plant . His fate and life have been marked by this choice: still nowadays, notwithstanding his sport successes, he defines himself as a “loser”.
Marco Olmo is well known in Europe, and particularly in his native Italy, but stunned many outsiders when he won Europe’s top trail ultra at Mont Blanc (UTMB) twice in 2006 and 2007 aged 58 then 59, ahead of top trail runners. UTMB is one of the hardest and most important endurance races in the world, over twenty hours of uninterrupted running, 167 km (over 100 miles) around the tallest mountain in Europe. An almost unimaginable race, where mental and physical training and personal motivations are fundamental.
These are just a few examples of Marco Olmo´s achievements since the 90´s
1996:
- Marathon des Sables (Marocco) 3rd
1997:
- Marathon des Sables (Marocco) 3rd
1998:
- Desert Marathon (Libia) 1st
- Marathon des Sables (Marocco) 4th
1999:
- Desert Marathon (Libya) 1st
- Marathon des Sables (Marocco) 3rd
- Verdon trail (France) 1st
2000:
- Desert Marathon (Libia) 1st
- Marathon des Sables (Marocco) 7th
- Verdon trail (France) 3rd
- Desert Cup (Jordan) 1st
2001:
- Desert Cup (Jordan) 1st
- Gran Raid du Cro-Magnon (Italy – France) 1st
2002:
- Desert Cup (Jordan) 1st
- Gran Raid du Cro-Magnon (Italy – France) 1st
- Marathon des Sables (Marocco) 4h
2003:
- Desert Cup (Jordan) 1st
- Marathon des Sables (Marocco) 6th
- Gran Raid du Cro-Magnon (Italy – France) 1st
2004:
- Gran Raid du Cro-Magnon (Italy – France) 1st
- Marathon des Sables (Marocco) 7th
2005:
- Gran Raid du Cro-Magnon (Italy – France) 1st
- Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (France) 3rd
- Marathon des Sables (Marocco) 8th
2006:
- Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (France) 1st
- Marathon des Sables (Marocco) 11th
- Gran Raid du Cro-Magnon (France) 1st
2007:
- Gran Trail Valdigne (Italy) 1st
- Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (France) 1st
- Via Marenca (Italy) 1st
- Le Porte di Pietra (Italy) 1st
- Chaberton Marathon (France – Italy) 1st
- Winter Eco Trail (Italy) 3rd
- Marathon des Sables (Marocco) 11th
2008:
- Le Porte Di Pietra (Italy) 3rd
- Oman Raid (Oman) 1st
- Gran Trail Rensen (Italy) 3rd
- Transgrancanaria (Spain) 1st
- Marathon des Sables (Marocco) 9th
2009:
- Transvulcania (Spain) 3rd
- Racing The Planet (Namibia) 3rd
- Marathon des Sables (Marocco) 12th
2010:
- Grand Raid del Sahara (Mali) 2nd
- Transvulcania (Spain) 10th
- Marathon des Sables (Marocco) 13th
- Runiceland (Iceland) 1st
2011:
- Marathon des Sables (Marocco) 12th
- Runiceland (Iceland) 2nd
- Oman Raid (Oman) 2nd
- Magredi Mountain Trail (Italy) 3rd
2012
- Marathon des Sables (Marocco) 14th
2013
- Marathon des Sables (Marocco) 14th
2014
- Sahara Marathon (Algeria) 3rd
- 100 km del Caribe (Republica Dominicana) 3rd
- Marathon des Sables (Marocco) 23st
2015
- Marathon des Sables (Marocco) 14th
