Ercole Gallegati started wrestling at the age of 17 and won his first Italian Championships three years later. He took part in four Olympics from 1932-52, winning three Olympic medals, and at the 1934 European Championships placed third as a welterweight. In Italy Gallegati won 31 titles from 1931-56 in both styles, with 20 in Greco-Roman and 11 in freestyle, but internationally, all his success came in Greco-Roman. He later became a coach and was elected to the city council of his home town of Faenza.