Franca Capetta (née Biasioli), a two-time Olympian in 1976 and 1988, died on 5 July at the age of 86.
She was known as one of the best Italian archers of the 1970s, setting all the then-existing national indoor and outdoor records.
Born in Este in the Veneto region of northern Italy in December 1936, Capetta started archery in 1973 when she was 36. She placed second at the Italian Championships that year, and only two years later competed at her first World Archery Championships in Interlaken, Switzerland, where she placed 12th.
She represented Italy at two editions of the Olympics Games – at Montreal 1976, where she finished 12th, and at Moscow 1980, where she came 10th.
Between 1975 and 1985, Capetta won 15 national titles – eight outdoors and seven indoors.
She appeared at four world championships (1975, 1979, 1983, 1985), four European championships, two European indoors – and won gold at the 1979 Mediterranean Games in Split, Croatia.
Franca Capetta retired from international competition in 1985 but continued to train and compete occasionally into her 80s.
Header image courtesy Italian archery federation.
