He was born in Frosinone. He participated at the 2000 Olympic Games without reaching the final. He cleared the 17-metre mark for the first time in June 2000 at the Notturna di Milano meeting – his mark of 17.60 m was a significant personal best and also improved Paolo Camossi's Italian record by 31 centimetres. This was the second best jump in Europe that year. In the same year he also became Italian champion for the first time. His main competitor around that time was Camossi. In 2001 he finished sixth at the 2001 World Indoor Championships and won the gold medal at the 2001 Mediterranean Games. The winning result of 17.05 metres was his season's best. It was almost a championship record as well, but Marios Hadjiandreou's 17.13 metres from 1991 was slightly better. In 2002 he reached 17 metres for the first time indoor, with 17.03 metres in Genoa in February. He finished fourth at both the 2002 European Indoor Championships and the 2002 European Championshipsin the summer. In the latter competition he jumped 17.15 metres, and his season's best was 17.17. Then, some less successful years followed. He competed without reaching the final at the 2003 World Championships, the 2004 World Indoor Championships and the 2004 Olympic Games. He failed to reach the 17-metre mark at all in 2004 and 2005. In 2006 he experienced an improvement with 17.33 metres indoor and 17.24 metres outdoor, but failed to reach the final at both the 2006 World Indoor Championships and the 2006 European Championships. He did however win the European Cup Super League meeting in June, reaching 16.99 metres. In 2007 he again failed to reach 17 metres, and again failed to reach the final of a major competition, this time at the 2007 World Championships. 2008 and 2009 would be marked by fruitful indoor seasons and fruitless outdoor seasons. He finished fourth in the final at the 2008 World Indoor Championships with a mark of 17.27 metres, but after with Fabio Martella he won the gold medal at the 2009 European Indoor Championships with a mark of 17.59 metres. These two marks were the season's best of the respective years. 17.59 was also a new championship record for the European Indoor Championships. In comparison, he only managed 16.91 outdoors in 2008 and only 15.81 outdoors in 2009. He had unsuccessful participations at the 2008 Olympic Games and the 2009 World Championships. His personal best jump is still 17.60 metres, and 17.73 metres on the indoor track. He is the Italian record holder. In the long jump he has 8.00 metres outdoors, achieved in September 2006 in Busto Arsizio with the maximum possible wind assistance, and 8.03 metres indoors, achieved in February 2011 in Ancona. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, he jumped 17.48 metres to win the bronze medal. He's the husband of the former sprinterPatrizia Spuri.
