His first Olympic experience (in Athens in 2004) came when he was just 20 years old, reflecting a precocious talent that was also emerging at an international level. A few years later, however, with three World titles in the junior and Under-23 categories, a cardiac arrhythmia problem prevented him from completing his meteoric rise, forcing him to take a two-year break and miss out on Beijing. After his recovery, however, he has made up for it, returning to the podium at the Mediterranean Games, the World Championships and the European Championships, as well as participating at the London Games. On the eve of the British Olympics he became the first sports ambassador of the "Stella Maris" foundation, the Institute of Neuropsychiatry for Children and Adolescents of Calambrone, in the province of Pisa.