Draft:Andrea Presti

Andrea Presti is an Italian bodybuilder.

He is considered by public opinion to be one of the most representative Italian bodybuilders of the contemporary era, not least by virtue of his three consecutive participations in the Mr. Olympia competition, an event in which he finished twelfth at the end of his participation in 2023.

Biography
Son of Maurizio Presti, judoka, and Ennia Sandrini, Andrea Presti is originally from Endine Gaiano, but he grew up in Darfo Boario Terme, in Val Camonica, in the province of Brescia.

In 2015, he made his debut in the IFBB federation as an amateur, achieving gradually increasing results that led him to win a professional membership in 2017 in the IFBB Pro League federation. From 2017 to 2021, several podium finishes followed, allowing him to make a name for himself on the international bodybuilding scene.

In 2021, by winning a professional competition in Estoril, the Mr. Big Evolution Pro, he qualified directly for the Mr. Olympia, the most important competition in the world, where the best bodybuilders compete globally. It had been 28 years since an Italian had stepped on the world's most important stage in the top category (Open Bodybuiding category): the last were Mauro Sarni and Flavio Baccianini in 1993.

In 2022, he again won the Mr. Big Evolution Pro in Estoril, reconfirmed as champion and qualified for the Mr. Olympia competition for the second year in a row.

In 2023, he re-qualified for the top competition, finishing twelfth, the best placing by an Italian in the race since Franco Columbu's victory in 1981.

In 2023, he set up a third sector body named after his father, the Maurizio Presti Foundation, in 2024, with the aim of bringing young people in economically disadvantaged circumstances closer to the world of sport by creating a network of participating gyms and sports centres.