Cairo 2025: Donato Telesca steps up to a new challenge

Donato Telesca of Italy is hungry for fresh challenges after claiming silver at the Dubai 2023 WPPO Championships and bronze at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games in the men’s up to 72kg category.

Now 26, Telesca is stepping into a new territory. He will compete in the men’s up to 88kg category at the upcoming Cairo 2025 WPPO Championships, which open on 9 October. For the first time, the Rookie & Next Gen event will span two days (9–10 October), before the Elite World Championships take centre stage from 11 to 18 October.

If all goes to plan, Telesca will contest his second World Championships medal on 12 October. After years of going head-to-head with two-time Paralympic champion Bonnie Bunyau Gustin, Telesca now enters a division led by China’s Panpan Yan, the reigning Paralympic champion from Paris. He will not be alone: Egypt’s Mohamed Elelfat and Ukraine’s Yurii Babynets, both medallists from Paris, are also in the mix. 

For Elelfat, the home crowd will add an extra fire as he chases his first world title in more than a decade.

A category without a king

The men’s up to 88kg division is still searching for its new dominant force. Jordan’s Abdelkareem Khattab set the world record in Dubai before moving up to the 97kg category—where he promptly broke the record there as well. The absence of Khattab leaves the field wide open, and Telesca knows this could be his moment.

Born in Pietragalla and currently living in Rome, the Italian is beginning a new chapter after two of the finest years of his sporting life. He made history in Dubai as the first Italian to win a World Para Powerlifting Championships medal, before going one better in Paris by becoming the first from his nation to claim Paralympic silverware.

🥇🥇🥇 Wow! Making it look easy like a Sunday morning! Take a bow, Bonnie, you are a three-time World champion!

🥇 Bonnie Bunyau Gustin 🇲🇾
🥈 Donato Telesca 🇮🇹
🥉 Bekzod Jamailov🇺🇿#Dubai2023 | #ParaPowerlifting | @ParaSport | @Paralympics | @MASParalympics pic.twitter.com/Cs2ghhfu0S

— Para Powerlifting (@Powerlifting) August 24, 2023

History and emotion in Paris

At the Port de la Chapelle Arena, watched by family and friends, Telesca lifted 213kg — just one kilogram short of silver, claimed by China’s Peng Hu. But the result mattered little to those who witnessed it. The celebration lasted long after the competition, filled with tears, embraces and unrestrained joy. 

In that whirlwind of emotion, he told WPPO: “When I was going to the bench, I looked at them — my family, my friends — and thought: You can’t make any mistakes, you can’t do anything less than your best. This really matters, when you see every person who believes in you —my federation, my family, my coaches. My coach Antonio believed in me the most, together with my family. 
That medal was for them.”

Exactly a year ago, Donato Telesca won a historic, first-ever medal for Italy in #ParaPowerlifting at the @Paralympics. 🥉

The vividly emotional 26-year-old Italian was cheered on by many family members and friends in Paris, spurring him to complete a 214kg lift. 🏋️‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/SyAerjPAFx

— Para Powerlifting (@Powerlifting) September 6, 2025

The medal, however, carried an even deeper dedication. With teary eyes, Telesca added:

“My grandfather and my two grandmothers, who I’ve lost — this medal is for them. I was sad they couldn’t see me, but this medal belongs to them before anyone else.”

From rookie to trailblazer

Now, more than a year since Paris, Telesca is refreshed and ready. A graduate in Economics and Management with a specialisation in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, he combines intellect with iron will.

Although still only 26, his journey already feels rich in history. He first discovered Para powerlifting in 2016 and made his international debut a year later at the Mexico City 2017 World Junior Championships, where he won gold. 

He defended that title at the Nur-Sultan 2019 World Juniors and went on to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, finishing sixth. His rapid rise among the elite truly began in 2022, when he captured gold at the Tbilisi 2022 European Open Championships—launching the most successful period of his career so far.

Now Cairo awaits, and with it, a new weight class, a new field of rivals, and perhaps, a new place in history for Italy’s trailblazer.