Massimo Stano (born 27 February 1992) is a male Italian

racewalker Racewalking, or race walking, is a long-distance discipline within the sport of athletics. Although a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. Race judges carefully asse ...

. He competed in the 20 kilometres walk event at the

2015 World Championships in Athletics The 2015 IAAF World Championships ( zh, 第十五届世界田径锦标赛), the fifteenth edition of the IAAF World Championships, were held from 22 to 30 August at the National Stadium in Beijing, China. Forty-three nations won medals, 144 of ...

in Beijing, China, finishing in the 19th position, and the same event at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

held in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, Japan, finishing in first place. On 24 July 2022, Stano won the 2022 World Athletics Championships with a championship record.

Career

Born in

Grumo Appula Grumo Appula ( Barese: ; la, Grumum) is a town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Bari, Apulia, southern Italy. The town is a few kilometers inland from the port of Bari on the Adriatic Sea and has a population of about 12,200. People ...

, he grew up in Palo del Colle. He started with athletics at 11 years-old with the Fiamma Olimpia Palo, middle-distance running mainly, then starting at 14 years-old to practise racewalking with his coach Giovanni Zaccheo. His club becomes for 4 years the Atletica Aden Exprivia

Molfetta Molfetta (; Molfettese: ) is a town located in the northern side of the Metropolitan City of Bari, Apulia, southern Italy. It has a well restored old city, and its own dialect. History The earliest local signs of permanent habitation are a ...

, the town where he trained. In 2011, he became a policeman as member of the

Fiamme Oro The Gruppo Sportivo Fiamme Oro is the sport section of the Italian police force Polizia di Stato. The color of the competition jerseys of the athletes of the Fiamme Oro is crimson, therefore the athletes of the sports group are sometimes called '' ...

. His first big athletics result comes from the

2013 European Athletics U23 Championships The 2013 European Athletics U23 Championships was the 9th edition of the biennial athletics competition between European athletes under the age of twenty-three. It was held in Tampere, Finland from 10 to 14 July. Russia topped the medal table wit ...

in Tampere where he finished initially fourth, but where he won first the bronze medal, then the silver after the doping disqualification of 2 Russians. To improve his results, he left Palo for Sesto San Giovanni taking a new coach, Alessandro Gandellini. With too many injuries, he finally decided to change again of location and went to , working and training in the barracks of the

. His new coach becomes Patrizio Percesepe. Very quickly, he started having better results: he won the national championships with a personal best, he finished third at the 2018 IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships in Taicang, China and 4th at the European Championships in Berlin, finishing at only 1 second from the podium. In June 2019, he established the new national record of 1:17:45, but then, he finished only 14th at the 2019 World Championships in Doha. 2020 was also a difficult year with more injuries (periostitis) and with Covid pandemic he started again walking at the European Cup in Poděbrady on 16 May 2021 where he finished 8th.

National records

* 20 km walk: 1:17:45 (

A Coruña A Coruña (; es, La Coruña ; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality of Galicia, Spain. A Coruña is the most populated city in Galicia and the second most populated municipality in the autonomous community and s ...

, 8 June 2019) - Current holder.

National titles

Italian Athletics Championships The Italian Athletics Championships ( it, Campionati italiani assoluti di atletica leggera) are the national championships in athletics, organised every year by the Federazione Italiana di Atletica Leggera. The first edition, four races only, w ...

10 km walk The 10 kilometres race walk, or 10-kilometer racewalk, is a racewalking event. The event is competed as a road race. Athletes must always keep in contact with the ground and the supporting leg must remain straight until the raised leg passes it ...

: 2018 ** 20 km walk: 2015, 2018, 2022

Personal life

In 2016 Stano married Moroccan athlete Fatima Lotfi. They have a daughter, Sophie, and live together in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

References

External links