I was born October 11th 1969. At that time I weighed 3,750 kg, and was 40 cm tall - these days I weigh a lot more!

When I at the age of five performed my first Tzukahara getting out of bed in the morning to go to preschool, my parents predicted for me a bright career as a gymnast.

After some broken chandeliers, sofa springs, and nerves (my poor mother's), I was escorted to the gym Etruria in Prato where I at the age of seven started my gymnastics career under the guidance of coach Tiziano Adolfetti.

With my first competition came also the first victory. This was in the regional championship of Tuscany in 1977.

In 1984 I entered the National Junior Team, and to be able to continue to do gymnastics on a high level, I had to move to Varese and my new coach Bruno Franceschetti.

The most important victories beside the ones in the Italian championships between 1989 and 1995, the Mediterranean Games, the Universiadi, and the European Cup, are of course the four titles on rings in the European Championships (in -90, -92, -94, and -96), the five Word Championship titles on rings (in -93, -94, -95, -96, and -97), and the gold medal in the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996.

I don't like to talk about the accidents I had before the Olympics in Barcellona and Sydney, because, as you can imagine, they were rather traumatic both for my tendons and for me.

To be continued... so stay tuned...