The goalkeeper from Prato is the water polo man of records: with more than 400 competitions in the Italian national team, he reached Gianni De Magistris’s record number of Olympic qualifications (5) with the national team. His vast medal collection includes a gold medal won at the 2011 Shangai World Championship, a special prize for best player, and a silver medal at London 2012, his last Olympic competition. His passion for water polo came quite by chance (he started swimming to improve his posture, due to his height), and has never stopped training for 20 years, during which he played for Futura Prato, RN Florentia, Pro Recco and Settebello. Sliding doors: if he hadn’t gone into water sports, he would have tried with basketball thanks to his height or he would have gone into dentistry, in which he earned a degree.