Massimo Scali

Massimo Scali
Faiella & Scali at the 2010 Worlds
Personal information
Full name	Massimo Scali
Country represented	Italy
Born	December 11, 1979 (1979-12-11) Monterotondo
Home town	Mentana, Province of Rome
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Partner	Federica Faiella
Former partner	Flavia Ottaviani
Coach	Pasquale Camerlengo Anjelika Krylova
Former coach	Natalia Linichuk Roberto Pelizzola Walter Rizzo Brunhilde Bianchi
Choreographer	Paola Mezzadri Ludmila Vlasova
Former choreographer	Pasquale Camerlengo Anjelika Krylova N. Pregnolato
Skating club	Agora Skating Team
ISU personal best scores
Combined total	201.91 2008 Worlds
Comp. dance	40.85 2010 Worlds
Original dance	63.55 2008 Worlds
Free dance	101.21 2008 Worlds
Medal record Figure skating Ice dancing Competitor for Italy World Championships Bronze 2010 Turin Ice dancing European Championships Silver 2010 Tallinn Ice dancing Silver 2009 Helsinki Ice dancing Junior Grand Prix Final Bronze 1997–1998 Lausanne Ice dancing

Massimo Scali (born December 11, 1979 in Monterotondo, Italy) is an Italian ice dancer. With partner Federica Faiella, he is the 2010 World bronze medalist, the 2009 & 2010 European silver medalist and a six-time (2003–2005, 2007–2009) Italian national champion. They have won eleven Grand Prix medals.

Career

Faiella and Scali perform a reverse lift

Early years

Massimo Scali began skating at the age of ten. His early ice dance career was with Flavia Ottaviani, with whom he won six medals on the Junior Grand Prix. They were the 1997/1998 Junior Grand Prix Final bronze medalists. He and Faiella trained at the same rink under the same coach. After his partner quit skating, he briefly partnered with Jennifer Wester.

Partnership with Faiella

Scali teamed up with Federica Faiella in 2001. Despite skating together for only a brief period of time, they were able to qualify for the 2002 Winter Olympics, where they finished 18th.

In their second season of competition together, Faiella and Scali won Italian nationals for the first time, and placed in the top ten at the European Championships. A year later, they moved into the top ten at Worlds. In the years leading up to the 2006 Winter Olympics, they continued to make steady progress up the ranks. Prior to the 2005-06 Olympic season, Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margaglio, who won silver for Italy at the 2002 Games, returned to the eligible ranks. Faiella and Scali became the second Italian team, and finished outside the top ten at the Olympics after a fall in the original dance.

Following the season, they made a coaching change and relocated to the United States to work with Pasquale Camerlengo and Anjelika Krylova at the Detroit Skating Club in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. They had an up and down season in 2006-7 but enjoyed good results in 2007-08, including a fourth place at the Europeans and a fifth place finish at Worlds.

In the 2008-09 season, Faiella and Scali finished second at the Trophee Eric Bompard and won their first Grand Prix event, the 2008 NHK Trophy. This qualified them for their first Grand Prix final, where they finished fourth. They won their first European medal, a silver, behind Russians Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski. At the 2009 World Championships, a fall in the original dance ended their hopes of medal contention, and they finished eighth.

Faiella and Scali perform an Italian folk dance at the 2010 World Championships

Faiella and Scali's 2009-10 Olympic season got off to a disappointing start after they finished third at the 2009 Cup of China. They withdrew from their next Grand Prix event due to Faiella's illness. At the 2010 Europeans, they were in much better form, winning both the original dance and the free dance to finish second overall. They were fifth at the Olympics. Faiella fell ill after the Olympics and returned to the ice only four days before the World Championships. The duo won their first world medal, a bronze, in Turin.

At the 2010 World Championships, Faiella and Scali announced that they would return for another season. Their assigned Grand Prix events in 2010-11 were the Cup of China and the Cup of Russia. Visa problems delayed their training in the U.S. and Faiella had recurring back problems. They again finished third at the 2010 Cup of China after Scali tripped on Faiella's skirts in both programs. They withdrew from the 2010 Cup of Russia prior to the free dance due to Scali's back injury. At the 2011 European Championships, they placed ninth in the short dance but moved up to fifth after the free dance.

On March 15, 2011, Scali announced on the team's website that they were retiring from competitive skating and that he would work with coach and choreographer Pasquale Camerlengo's team at the Detroit Skating Club. However, in May 2011 they revealed that the retirement posting was obsolete and inaccurate and was simply due to a combination of exhaustion after the Olympics and other major skating competitions, and of concerns over the extent of Faiella's injuries and recovery process; after it became clear that Faiella's healing process was progressing better than expected, they announced through their official website that they would in fact continue to skate competitively. In the meantime, while Scali is preparing and training for his next skating competition with Faiella, he is also working as a coach at the Detroit Skating Club, alongside Camerlengo, Anjelika Krylova, Natalia Annenko-Deller, and Elizabeth Punsalan.,

Faiella and Scali often perform reverse lifts in competition, in which she lifted him.

Programs

Scali and Faiella's during their free dance at the 2010 Worlds

(with Faiella)

Season	Short dance	Free dance	Exhibition
2010–2011	My Fair Lady	Flamenco (Manolete)
	Original dance
2009–2010	Tammurriata nera Tarantella Pizzicata	The Immigrants (Gli Emigranti) by Nino Rota	Quel posto che non c'è by Negramaro
2008–2009	Follow the Fleet Let's Face the Music and Dance Let Yourself Go	Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven	Past that Duch The Rain Lose Control by Missy Elliott
2007–2008	Lu Rusciu de lu Mare Santo Poulo by Suono Salento	Yentl composed by Michel Legrand sung by Barbra Streisand
2006–2007	Tanguera by Sexteto Mayor	Pantera en Liberta by Monica Naranjo	Elisa
2005–2006	Cha Cha "Pata Pata" Rhumba Samba	The Mission by Ennio Morricone
2004–2005	How Can I Live to Another Day by Frank Sinatra Girls, Girls, Girls	Spirit in the Dark You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman Think by Aretha Franklin
2003–2004	Hafanana by Afric Simone Minnie the Moocher by Blues Brothers	Libertango Uno by Astor Piazzola
2002–2003	Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss	Ayer Volveras by Gloria Estefan Demaniado by Willy Deville	Big Spender
2001–2002	Scott & Frank's by D. Hirschfelder The Fencing Lesson by Marc Anthony	Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi performed by Boston Pops Orchestra	Por una cabeza

Competitive highlights

With Faiella

Faiella and Scali with their fellow medalists at the 2008 NHK Trophy

Event	2001–02	2002–03	2003–04	2004–05	2005–06	2006–07	2007–08	2008–09	2009–10	2010–11
Winter Olympic Games	18th				13th				5th
World Championships	16th	11th	9th	9th	8th	9th	5th	8th	3rd
European Championships	12th	8th	6th	5th	7th	6th	4th	2nd	2nd	5th
Italian Championships	2nd	1st	1st	1st	2nd	1st	1st	1st	1st	WD
Grand Prix Final								4th
Cup of China					6th		3rd		3rd	3rd
NHK Trophy								1st
Trophée Eric Bompard				5th	3rd	3rd		2nd
Skate America			4th				3rd
Skate Canada	7th	5th				3rd
Cup of Russia		5th	5th	3rd						WD
Bofrost Cup			3rd
Nebelhorn Trophy	2nd	1st
Karl Schaefer Memorial	2nd
WD = Withdrew

With Ottaviani

Event	1996–1997	1997–1998	1998–1999	1999–2000
World Junior Championships	22nd		7th	4th
Italian Championships		2nd J.	2nd J.	1st J.
Junior Grand Prix Final		3rd	6th	5th
Junior Grand Prix, Slovenia				3rd
Junior Grand Prix, Japan				1st
Junior Grand Prix, Bulgaria			1st
Junior Grand Prix, China			1st
Junior Grand Prix, France		1st
Junior Grand Prix, Slovakia		1st
J. = Junior level

References

• Federica Faiella & Massimo Scali at the International Skating Union

External links

• Official website