Simone Piroddu
Simone Piroddu (born 19 November 2002) is an Italian freestyle wrestler. Competing in the 61 kg weight class, Piroddu won the bronze medal at the 2026 European Wrestling Championships.
Career
Piroddu is the son of wrestler Mario Piroddu, who is also his coach. His sister Denise Piroddu is also a wrestler.
Piroddu achieved notable results for Italy in age-group competitions. In 2018, he won the bronze medal in the 55 kg event at the World Cadet Wrestling Championships. In 2019, he won gold medals in the 55 kg event at the 2019 European Cadets Wrestling Championships and at the 2019 European Youth Olympic Festival. In the final at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Baku, he defeated Azerbaijan's Abulfaz Nasirov to win the title.
In 2021, Piroddu made his senior European Championships debut in Warsaw, finishing 13th in the 61 kg event. The same year, he won the bronze medal in the 57 kg event at the 2021 European U23 Wrestling Championships. In 2022, he won the gold medal in the men's freestyle 57 kg event at the 2022 European U20 Wrestling Championships held in Rome.
In 2023, he won the bronze medal in the 61 kg event at the 2023 European U23 Wrestling Championships. The same year, he finished fifth in the 57 kg event at the 2023 European Wrestling Championships in Zagreb, Croatia. He defeated Spain's Levan Metreveli in the round of 16 and Ukraine's Andrii Yatsenko in the quarter-finals, before losing to Azerbaijan's Aliabbas Rzazade in the semi-finals and Germany's Horst Lehr in the bronze-medal match. At the 2023 World Wrestling Championships, he finished 24th in the men's freestyle 57 kg event.
At the 2026 European Wrestling Championships held in Tirana, Albania, Piroddu won the bronze medal in the men's freestyle 61 kg event. Although he lost 12–2 by technical superiority to Zelimkhan Abakarov, who represented host nation Albania, he advanced to the medal bout through the repechage. In the bronze-medal match, he defeated Azerbaijan's Nuraddin Novruzov by fall to finish third in Europe.