Leonardo fioravanti surfer biography
Catching Up With Leo Fioravanti
Brad Sterling checks in with Leo Fioravanti on lockdown in Byron Bay, far from his European home, to see how the global coronavirus pandemic is affecting his surfing and his life.
Leonardo Fioravanti is not a typical professional surfer. For starters he was born in Rome, Italy, a country not exactly famous for its surf. He is fluent in five languages and in 2018 became an ambassador for luxury fashion label Gucci, a sponsorship that sits somewhat at odds with his other, more typical sponsors in Quiksilver and Red Bull.
Whilst Leo admits that the surf in Italy is “not very consistent”, he says in winter you can get “pretty incredible waves sometimes” and says on occasion in Sardinia he has been “fully barreled”. “When you do score good waves in Italy”, he says, “it’s so rewarding because it’s (something) you are not used to getting”.
Leo grew up going to Oceansurf Beach Club in Cerveteri just outside of Rome with his parents, a club mainly focused on windsurfing and kite surfing but luckily with “a little bit of a surfing vibe”. Whilst his parents went there mainly to hang out with friends and enjoy the view, Leo was fortunate to be the youngest of a group of kids that loved to surf. Along with his older brother Matteo (who would later become a member of the Italian National Team) Leo started surfing at the age of six.
He got picked up by Quiksilver at just nine years of age and started spending summers with his mum staying at the Quiksilver house in France, granting him access to the wave-soaked coastlines of Hossegor and Biarritz. It was around this time that his mum met, and eventually married, Quiksilver global team manager Stephen “Belly” Bell. Belly became stepdad and mentor to Leo and France became his “home and training ground” for several years. “The best training ground ever”, he adds.
This lead to a youth spent travelling all over Europe (hence the five languages) competing in Pro Junior events and, The Roman athlete will represent Italy at the Paris Olympics. But sport is not just about winning medals and trophies: “Being in the water with your board, picking up speed and choosing the lines you want is what generates a true sense of freedom.” Leonardo Fioravanti, the Italian surfing star Great sportsmen have unique, special stories, anthologies of achievements and discoveries, trophies and firsts. Leonardo Fioravanti built his one wave at a time, balancing on his board, learning about the tides and the right time. Savouring the feeling of freedom you get as you enter a pipe, as the water curls over you and whitens. “It's an incredible connection with nature, an experience that only surfing can give you,” he says. Freedom of movement, of choice, of action - that's one of the driving forces of surfing. “Being in the water with your board, picking up speed and choosing the lines you want, that's the true sense of freedom,” explains Leonardo, who found his true passion in this sport at the age of six, at the start of the new millennium. He would spend his days with his brother Matteo at Ocean Surf in Cerenova. Packed with youthful dreams and eagerly drinking up images of competitions broadcast on Sky, showing legends like Kelly Slater and Andy Irons, Leonardo hoped to become one of them. Today he competes with the world's best and in July, he will be in the water to compete for an Olympic medal at the 2024 Paris Games. Reaching the top of a psychological, introspective yet creative as well as physically challenging sport such as surfing is no easy feat. It certainly required a good dose of talent - something which he had by the bucket load. But talent alone is not enough: “Talent exists, but it cannot be everything,” Fioravanti says. “You have to nurture it, improve it. There are no shortcuts. Every step is important and you have “Forza Italia!” he wrote on his Facebook page immediately after his triumph: in October, Leonardo Fioravanti, 17, was crowned under-18 surfing world champion. His name is already in the history books: until now no Italian surfer had ever conquered the world. Leonardo succeeded, taming the waves at Oceanside, California, in six days of competitions and surfboard challenges. Leonardo’s victory was a particularly sweet triumph: at the beginning of the year, he had an accident during a competition in Hawaii, followed by a long period of rehabilitation. Flooded by messages of support from his many fans, Leonardo was back on his feet in time to compete in and win the world championship. The young Quiksilver athlete truly deserved gold at the ISA 2015 World Junior Surfing Championship, in which 322 top junior surfers from 36 countries all over the world competed. A TRUE ITALIAN, A CITIZEN OF THE WORLD TRACK RECORD: SIX TITLES IN FIVE YEARS Italian surfer (born 1997) Leonardo Fioravanti (born 8 December 1997) is a surfer who represented Italy at the 2020 Summer Olympics, the first surfer from Italy to compete in the newly-added Olympic surfing competition. He qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games. Fioravanti competed in the 2016 US Open for surfing, pushing himself to compete despite injuries incurred during practice prior to the competition. He was eliminated in the contest, with indications that his injury contributed to his performance. He would go on to compete as the first surfer from Italy to perform at the inaugural Olympic surfing competition, replacing Jordy Smith from South Africa, who dropped out due to an injury. Fioravanti made it to the second round of the competition. Fioravanti competed in his first stage of the CT in 2013 at the age of 16. In 2017 he reached the world elite for the first time, finishing 26th. In the 2021 season he achieved his best result yet, finishing 13th. The following year he got off to a bad start and ended up in the mid-season cut. But when he competed in the 2022 Challenger Series, he scored the most points, winning the EDP Vissla Pro Ericeira stage in Portugal and becoming CS 2022 champion and returning to the CT. In 2023, at the first stage of the season, he had his best result of his career, reaching the final of the Billabong Pro Pipeline and being beaten by Jack Robinson. Leo had his best finish of his career so far, Leonardo Fioravanti, the Italian surfing star
LEONARDO FIORAVANTI:
THE WAVE TAMER WHO LOVES THE VESPA
The young champion hails from Cerveteri (Rome), and is a true “citizen of the world”, having travelled widely and lived abroad, in the USA, Australia and France. Wide Magazine wrote about Leonardo two years ago, when he became 2013 European ASP Pro Junior Champion (Association of Surfing Professionals): on that occasion, Xtreme Video produced the “Italian Surfers” web series about him, where he can be seen riding a Vespa, the undisputed icon of Italian style, and demonstrating his skill in mastering the world’s most famous scooter, as well as the ocean waves. Leonardo has two idols: surfing legend Kelly Slater, 7 times world champion (whom he met in Hawaii), and the Vespa, chosen as the co-star of his web series. Vespa and Fioravanti: a winning duo.
Leonardo began surfing at the tender age of four, following his brother Matteo, a surfer with the Italian team. Young Leonardo showed talent and travelled to the Maldives, Australia, Brazil, as well as spending time Leonardo Fioravanti (surfer)
Leonardo Fioravanti Born (1997-12-08) December 8, 1997 (age 27)
Rome, Lazio, ItalyHeight 5 ft 11 in (180 cm) Weight 176 lb (80 kg) Years active Since 2011 (15) Best year 2023 - Ranked #9 WSL CT World Tour Sponsors Red Bull, Panerai, Bell by Euroglass, K-WAY Major achievements Stance Regular (natural foot) Career