Mauro Prosperi

Mauro Prosperi (born 13 July 1955) is an Italian former police officer and pentathlete, most notable for his nine-day disappearance and survival in the Sahara, whilst competing in the 1994 Marathon des Sables (Marathon of the Sands) in Morocco.

Early life Prosperi was born in the Italian capital city of Rome on 13 July 1955.

One year prior to graduating from his secondary school, a liceo artistico (an Italian secondary school focused on the study of art subjects) in 1974, Prosperi began working for the Polizia di Stato (the national police force of Italy) as a crowd-control police officer. In an interview with Netflix in 2019, Pagliara noted that she admired Prosperi's positivity and enthusiasm towards overcoming challenges and obstacles at the event.

Marathon des Sables and disappearance Prosperi was first informed of the Marathon Des Sables by a friend of seven years and fellow running enthusiast Giovanni Manzo, who entertained the idea that they compete in the race together. All competitors began running together in the morning, yet due to the small number of participants and differing paces of each individual, each person was running almost entirely alone. Due to the intensity of the windblown sand grains upon his skin, Prosperi experienced bleeding within his nose and injuries in his throat, whilst breathing in the particles of sand. However, following a climb to the summit of a tall dune, Prosperi was unable to identify any other participants, and furthermore realised that all signs and landmarks indicating the race trail had disappeared following the storm. It was not until sunset that he noticed a low-flying helicopter, on loan to Marathon coordinators by the Moroccan police, As the fire began to light up, another sandstorm struck, lasting twelve hours and leaving Prosperi stranded once again. He suffered damage to his liver, hindering his digestion and causing him to eat soup, liquids and pureed food for months. He has said that once he starts something, he wants to finish it. The third episode of the series, entitled "Desert", follows Grylls re-creating aspects of Prosperi's survival story. The campaign was promoted on the film studio's YouTube channel and entitled "The Revenant | Shouldn't Be Alive: Mauro Prosperi".

In 2022, Prosperi returned to the marabout, or burial shrine, with a TV crew.