Sandro Castellano: The “Patriarch” of Water Polo journalism

Sandro Castellano, born 1925 in Suza, Torino Italy is a legendary personality of World Water Polo. Considered as the “Patriarch” of International Water Polo journalism, he had a long and successful carrier including his presence to “no more” and “no less” than 10 Olympic Games……Castellano at the age of five moved from Suza to Pegli, Liguria due to family reasons. At his youth he has been Water Polo player playing for “beach club” teams of Liguria, in amateur level. In 1938 he has been drafted along with his two best friends by “Andrea Doria”. Despite the fact that he was a good swimmer, he was the only one not selected because of his “short hands”…..His great passion for the Sport didn’t let him to go down. His strong will to remain in the field brought him to the world of Journalism. Sandro Castellano worked for various Newspapers such as “Gazzetta dello Sport”, “Tutto Sport”, “Stadio Bologna”, “Corriere dello Sport”, “la Stampa”, “Corriere della Serra”, “il Giorno”, “il Mattino di Napoli” etc. In early 70’s he has been one of the first journalist to work for the well know Italian magazine “Il mondo del Nuoto” and the the "International Swimming and Water Polo magazine". His international debut started back to 1952 at Helsinki, Olympics. He missed Melbourne 1956 but then he didn’t miss any Olympics from Rome 1960 up to Barcelona 1992. He covered 14 European and 7 World Championships ending his great International carrier at Barcelona 2003 World Championships. Sandro Castellano is now living in Pegli, still hunting news from around the World. We don’t know if he became rich spending his life writing stories about others; teams, players, coaches, referees or officials. One thing is sure. Sandro Castellano, despite his “short hands”.. showed a passion and dedication for this Sport, that should inspire next generations to do their best attempting to attract more and more people to the Water Polo family around the World.