His objective is to conquer the Olympic medal, which he came close to in Beijing, where he came fourth. After the London experience in 2012 (12th place), he is now ready for the podium. He has had to concentrate on body building in order to be more competitive on the basketball pitch and, when he was 12, his father took him to the Canottieri Ravenna where he immediately fell in love with rowing, initially alternating it with basketball. Once he started concentrating on rowing, he never went back to basketball and has collected a number of victories at Italian, European and world level. He knows he is a role model for many young people, he is into social activism and supports various causes and foundations working for the less fortunate.