Matteo Rizzo

Background

Matteo Rizzo was born on 5 September 1998 in Rome. He is the son of Valter Rizzo, an ice dancing coach, and the younger brother of Francesca Rizzo, who competed in ice dancing.

Education

In January–February 2014, making his senior international debut, he finished 9th at the Bavarian Open and 5th at the Dragon Trophy, before taking the silver medal at the Hellmut Seibt Memorial.

Career

Rizzo began skating in 2006. He competed at the 2014 World Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria but was eliminated after placing 30th in the short program In the 2014-2015 season, Rizzo placed 15th at his sole JGP assignment, in Germany.

In January 2015, he placed fourth at the 2015 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival in Austria.

His final event of the season was the 2015 World Junior Championships, held in March 2015 in Tallinn, Estonia. Rizzo qualified for the free skate by placing 20th in the short program and finished 22nd overall.

Rizzo continued on the JGP series in the 2015-2016 season, placing 5th at his assignments in Austria and Spain. He earned a bronze medal at the 2015 CS Denkova-Staviski Cup and finished 5th at the 2015 CS Warsaw Cup.

He reached the free skate at two International Skating Union Championships – the 2016 Europeans in Bratislava, and the 2016 Junior Worlds in Debrecen, Hungary.

He placed 13th at both events.

Achievements

• He has won six senior international medals, including two on the International Skating Union Challenger Series, and qualified for the free skate at three International Skating Union Championships. He debuted on the International Skating Union Junior Grand Prix (JGP) series in September 2013, placing 11th at an event in Slovakia, and won the Italian national junior title in December. Competing on the senior level from November to December, he won silver at the Merano Cup, bronze at the Warsaw Cup – his International Skating Union Challenger Series (CS) debut – gold at the Denkova-Staviski Cup, and silver at the Italian Championships.