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. 2021 Nov 5;31(4):10260.
doi: 10.4081/ejtm.2021.10260.

Paolo Gava, a professional engineer, who has become a Master athlete, an amateur scientist and a lifelong friend

Ugo Carraro  1 , Helmut Kern  2 , Giovanna Albertin  3
Affiliations

Paolo Gava, a professional engineer, who has become a Master athlete, an amateur scientist and a lifelong friend

Ugo Carraro et al. Eur J Transl Myol. .

Abstract

Paolo Gava, (Conegliano, Treviso, September 1, 1946 - Stra, Venezia, Italy, July 19, 2021) was a sustainable resources engineer, who worked in Italy, France and England, leading research programs well before the current international interest in countering global warming. Passionate about Tango, Paolo kept himself in shape for many decades by running or pedaling or roller-skating, after years of training as a semi-professional athlete, competing and winning Italian and European short distance races in the Master classes. Then, Paolo applied his engineering skills to optimize comparisons between the results of the different Classes of Master Athletes, questioning the rules used by Italian and World Master Sports Associations. Friendly discussing during an after-dinner, he shocked us claiming that, in absence of diseases and trauma (Early Aging), the aging decay is a linear process from 30 to 110 years. Under our friendly pressure he was able to publish his first biomedical article, detailing his mathematical approaches and results in a 2015 issue of Experimental Aging Research, titled: Age-associated power decline from running, jumping and throwing male master world records. To honor his other legacies during his last six years of life, we add here further examples of Paolo's scientific studies and his relationships with senior colleagues and young students of sports and aging sciences.

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Conflict of interest statement

We confirm that we have read the Journal’s position on issues involved in ethical publication and affirms that this report is consistent with those guidelines.

Figures

Fig 1.
Fig 1.
Passionate about Tango, Paolo kept himself always in shape by pedaling, after training for races in the Master classes. 2020.
Fig 2.
Fig 2.
Paolo Gava as a Master Athlete in 1989.
Fig 3.
Fig 3.
Comparison of normalized running parameters of male (blue) and female (red) Masters Athletes. Decline trends of World Records of the running disciplines are very similar. They are very gentle from 30 to 50 years, almost linear from 50 to 70 years and then the decays are progressively steeper. Reprinted with permission from Gava P, Giuriati W, Ravara B. Gender difference of aging performance decay rate in normalized Masters World Records of Athletics: much less than expected. Eur J Transl Myol. 2020 Apr 1;30(1):8869. doi: 10.4081/ejtm.2019.8869.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Gava P, Kern H, Carraro U. Age-associated power decline from running, jumping, and throwing male masters world records. Exp Aging Res. 2015;41(2):115-35. doi: 10.1080/0361073X.2015. 1001648. - PubMed
    1. Carraro U, Kern H, Gava P, Hofer C, Loefler S, Gargiulo P, Mosole S, Zampieri S, Gobbo V, Ravara B, Piccione F, Marcante A, Baba A, Schils S, Pond A, Gava F. Biology of Muscle Atrophy and of its Recovery by FES in Aging and Mobility Impairments: Roots and By-Products. Eur J Transl Myol. 2015. Aug 25;25(4):221-30. doi: 10.4081/ejtm.2015.5272. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Carraro U, Kern H, Gava P, Hofer C, Loefler S, Gargiulo P, Edmunds K, Árnadóttir ÍD, Zampieri S, Ravara B, Gava F, Nori A, Gobbo V, Masiero S, Marcante A, Baba A, Piccione F, Schils S, Pond A, Mosole S. Recovery from muscle weakness by exercise and FES: lessons from Masters, active or sedentary seniors and SCI patients. Aging Clin Exp Res. 2017. Aug;29(4):579-590. doi: 10.1007/s40520-016-0619-1. Epub 2016 Sep 3. - PubMed
    1. Gava P, Giuriati W, Ravara B. Gender difference of aging performance decay rate in normalized Masters World Records of Athletics: much less than expected. Eur J Transl Myol. 2020. Apr 1;30(1):8869. doi: 10.4081/ejtm.2019.8869. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zuccon D. Analisi della partecipazione e della prestazione di atleti senior machili e femminili in diverse edizioni della Venicemarathon. University of Padova. Thesis in Sport Sciences (Italian with English summary).