Alpine skiing and then cross-country skiing – on the advice of his father – represented the anti-chamber of his biathlon career, a sport already taken up by his younger sister, Carmen. He started skiing when he was 12 with the Val Gardena Ski Club and in 2008 made it to the Italian national team. With the bronze medal in the 15-km world championship competition in Hochfilzen, he became the third Italian to win an individual world championship medal after Karin Obehofer’s bronze medal in the Kontiolahti mass start of 2015 and Dorothea Wierer’s silver medal in the Holmekollen 2016 pursuit. When he is not competing, he enjoys cycling, climbing and weight-lifting, while his idols are the Swedish athlete Helena Ekholm and the Norwegian Tora Berger.