During my career as an athlete, I had the honor of training with some of the best coaches in the of figure skating. Until the age of twelve, I practiced under the supervision of Silvana Grilli, and when I turned thirteen, I became part of the Italian National Team. I started my four years of training with Gunter Zoller, an East German coach and the Manager of the Italian National Team at the time. The practices, in both cases, were always well-organized and intense. There were not many rules, but the few that existed were clear and could not be. There was one motto at that time: "Work hard, and when you are done, it again." This philosophy helped me build strong skating skills and good confidence at a young age. In 1990, Carlo Fassi (a four-time gold medalist at the Olympic Games with four different students ) became the new coach of the Italian National Team. He and his wife Christa took charge of my training. With Carlo and Christa, I learned the difficult task of becoming as professional as possible in all aspects of the sport, not just during daily practices or competitions, but also in relation to the media and all entities that are an important part of figure skating at the international level. When the Fassis decided to return to the U.S., I chose to continue working with Michela Boschetto, who was already part of the Fassi team and had been my choreographer since 1993. I put her in charge of my career. At that point, I was spending the high season in Milan, Italy, and the off-season in Lake Arrowhead, CA, in order to continue being mentored by and Christa Fassi. Michela had the capacity to capitalize on all the instructions I received and help me perform to the best of my potential from all perspectives and circumstances. I culminated my career with the Olympic Games in Nagano and the World Championships in Minneapolis (USA). I retired in May of 1998.

This picture is not complete without mentioning my participation as an athlete in numerous camps with the following coaches (in chronological order): - Elena Tchaikovskaia (RUS), Russian Olympic Committee's main coach - Alexei Mishin (RUS), whose current and former students include Olympic Championsei Urmanov, Alexei Yagudin, Evgeni Plushenko, and European Champion Elizaveta Tuktamysheva - Frank Carroll (USA), inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame, the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame, the Professional Skaters Association Coaches Hall of Fame, and was the 1997 Olympic Coach of the Year - Alain Giletti (FRA), 1960 World Champion, the 1955-1957 & 1960-1961 European Champion, and a ten-time (1951–1957, 1959–1961) French National Champion - Valentyn Nikolayev (UKR), Olympic Gold Medalist Coach

and Pasquale Camerlengo, a World and Olympic coach, choreographer, and, most importantly, a friend.