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

racewalker Race walking, or racewalking, 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 asses ...

. 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 officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

held in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, 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: ; ) 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 it has a population of about 12,200. . It is part of th ...

, 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 (; Bari dialect, 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 habit ...

, 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 were the 9th edition of the biennial athletics (sport), athletics competition between European athletes under the age of twenty-three. It was held in Tampere, Finland from 10 to 14 July. Russia topped ...

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 Sesto San Giovanni (; , ), locally referred to as just Sesto (), is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Milan, in the Italian region of Lombardy. It was awarded with the honorary title of ''città'' (city) by decree of 10 Apri ...

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 A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

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 The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

in Poděbrady on 16 May 2021 where he finished 8th. In 2021 he won the gold medal in 20 km race walk at the

. In 2022 he won the 35 km race walk event

2022 World Athletics Championships The 2022 World Athletics Championships was the eighteenth edition of the World Athletics Championships. It was held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, United States, from July 15–24, 2022, with the country hosting that competition for the ...

in Eugene. In

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

he finished 4th at the 20 km walk event, and 6th at the

Marathon race walk mixed relay The marathon race walk mixed relay is a racewalking mixed relay event over the marathon distance that was first contested at the 2024 Summer Olympics on 7 August. World Athletics and the International Olympic Committee introduced the race in Apri ...

event with Antonella Palmisano.

National records

* 20 km walk: 1:17:45 (

A Coruña A Coruña (; ; also informally called just Coruña; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality in Galicia, Spain. It is Galicia's second largest city, behind Vigo. The city is the provincial capital of the province ...

, 8 June 2019) - Current holder.

National titles

Italian Athletics Championships The Italian Athletics Championships () are the national championships in Athletics (sport), athletics, organised every year by the Federazione Italiana di Atletica Leggera. The first edition, four races only, was held in 1906 at Arena Civica in ...

** 10 km walk: 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 Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

References

External links