Leonardo Fabbri

• Status: Active
• Height: 200cm (6’7”)
• Weight: ~130kg (286lbs)
• Age: 28
• Birthday: April 15, 1997
• Nationality: Italian
• Events: Shot Put
• Personal Bests:
  • Shot put: 22.98m

Leonardo Fabbri Honours

• 2023 World Championship Silver Medalist in the Shot Put
• 2024 Diamond League Final Winner
• 2024 European Championships Winner
• Italian National Champion x4
• Italian National Record Holder

Leonardo Fabbri Early Life and Early Career

Leonardo Fabbri has established himself as one of the world’s best shot putters over the past several seasons. His personal best of 22.98 meters is an Italian record.

Fabbri was born into an athletic family in the Florence metro area. His mother was a swimmer and his father was a sprinter. He tried several different sports as a child including artistic gymnastics, basketball, and soccer, before eventually settling on athletics, and more specifically, the throws.

Fabbri saw early success in his athletics career, winning the Italian Championships (cadet category) for shot put in 2012. The next year, as part of the Italian national team, he took third place in the shot put at the European Youth Championships held in Utrecht.

The next year he would qualify for the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China, finishing seventh.

Later Career

Fabbri continued to excel at the youth and junior levels, and would go on to win the Mediterranean Under 23 Championships in 2019. Fabbri would win his first senior title in 2017 in Trieste and go on to win again in 2020, 2023, and 2024 (as of the time of writing). He would also win the indoor national title in 6 out of 8 years from 2018–2025.

At a meeting in Vicenza in 2019, he would throw 20.99 meters to qualify for his first World Championships. He placed thirteen overall in the preliminary round of the Championships with a throw of 20.75 meters, unfortunately just missing the final despite throwing a distance that would usually qualify.

Fabbri would break 21.00 meters for the first time in 2020 with a toss of 21.26 meters at the Memorial Todaro. His personal best would last two days before he would throw 21.57 meters in Sweden. At the Italian Championships in Padua, he would raise his personal best yet again to 21.99 meters to put him in the number two spot on the Italian all-time list.

The Olympics scheduled for 2020 would be postponed a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately for Fabbri, he would be plagued with injuries through 2021 and 2022, including a sports hernia, which in his own words translated from Italian rendered him in “pitiful shape” at the 2022 World Championships. He would finished eight in his qualifying section of the Olympics in 2021.

Fabbri would return in better shape in 2023, winning his first international medal at the senior level. His throw of 22.34 meters was enough to capture silver at the 2023 World Championships behind the American World Record holder Ryan Crouser.

He would continue to improve through 2024, setting an Italian indoor record and the second farthest European throw of all time in 2024 with 22.37. He would win bronze at the Indoor World Championships in Glasgow the next month.

His throw of 22.88 meters in Modena on May 1 would be the seventh longest throw in history. He would improve upon this two weeks later with a throw of 22.95 meters.