After Stefani had already won several races for himself in his early career years, he took part in the all-around world championship for juniors for the first time in February 2004, where he achieved ninth place with the team as the best result. A year later he became Italian junior champion in the small four-way battle and was able to establish himself in the extended world top of juniors in the following seasons. This led to the fact that he was appointed to the Italian World Cup team for the first time at the World Cup kick-off in winter 2006/07 . With consistently good results, especially in the second half of the season, the Italian qualified on the 1500-meter course for the A group, which included the 20 best speed skaters over the distance. He also stood on the World Cup podium for the first time in Turin in February 2007 when he achieved third place in the team run with the team Olympic winners Matteo Anesi and Enrico Fabris .
In the following winters, Stefani did not manage to establish himself in the A group on the individual routes, but he achieved several top ten places in the B group. The starts in the team run were much more successful: Together with Anesi and Fabris, the Italian won the silver medal at the individual distance world championships in Nagano in March 2008 . There were also three further podium finishes in the 2008/09 and 2009/10 seasons . The next career highlight followed in February 2010 when Stefani took part in the Winter Olympics in Vancouver . There, however, the Italian team retired early and finally finished sixth among eight nations. In his only single start over the 5000 meters, the then 22-year-old also reached third from last position in 25th place, while his team-mate Fabris, the best Italian, came in seventh.
Speed skating world cup placements
placement
100 m
500 m
1000 m
1500 m
3000 m
5000 m
10,000 m
team
total
1st place
2nd place
2
2
3rd place
2
2
Top 10
12
12
As of December 12, 2010
Web links
Luca Stefani in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
Italy
