He will dedicate any victory he may achieve to his recently deceased grandmother, who had encouraged him to go to Rio. The recent graduate in mechanical engineering has kept his word and conquered the qualification to represent Italy in this event, for the first time in the history of the Olympic Games. Between making one video and another, with his teammates of the Società Canottieri Ticino Pavia, which have become viral on Youtube, he has won a silver medal at the 2009 European Championships in the K4 500mt, followed later by another silver at the Mediterranean Games and by the bronze won on his home turf at the World Championships of Milan. The promising beginning of the season in the K1 has given him the confidence to go for a singles career and, in a matter of just a few months, he found himself representing a remarkable moment in the history of Italian sports.