At 23, Anita Ferraro Is Building a New Model for High-Performance Roller Skating
From limited infrastructure and resistance to structured sports education to a 23-person coaching team, Anita Ferraro is building Ferraro Skating Club around a belief that athletes should be developed—not simply trained.
Building the Structure She Wanted to See
At 23, most young professionals are still establishing their careers. Anita Ferraro is already responsible for the technical, educational and organisational direction of a professional sports club.
Based in Reggio Calabria, Italy, Ferraro Skating Club was founded in 2025 with an ambition that goes beyond conventional skating instruction.
Ferraro is building the organisation around a simple distinction: training an athlete is not the same as developing one.
That philosophy has shaped a club that combines high-performance roller skating with mental coaching, education and structured development. It also extends beyond athletes. The organisation currently includes 23 coaches, including eight minor trainees participating in structured development pathways designed to prepare them for future professional roles.
For Ferraro, the club is becoming more than a place to practise a sport. It is an emerging training and development hub where athletes and future coaches can grow within the same system.
From Early Responsibility to Leadership
Ferraro's leadership journey did not develop within a neatly established structure.
Instead, she describes a path shaped by early autonomy, resilience and the need to make decisions without always having the systems or conditions that might normally support them.
That experience appears to have influenced the way she has built the club.
Rather than allowing uncertainty to define the organisation, Ferraro has focused on creating the structure she believes athletes and young professionals need: clear standards, disciplined development and consistent leadership.
It is a particularly demanding position for a young founder.
Building credibility at 23 means that decisions have to speak louder than age. Consistency becomes part of the leadership argument, particularly in an environment where experience and established sporting structures can carry significant weight.
Ferraro's response has been to focus on the quality and coherence of the system she is creating.
Training the Person, Not Just the Athlete
The club's most significant differentiator is its integrated approach to performance.
Traditional sports training can often centre primarily on technical ability. Ferraro Skating Club takes a broader view, combining high-performance coaching, mental development and structured education.
The objective is not simply to improve an athlete's skating skills, but to help develop their identity, discipline and long-term ability to perform.
That philosophy changes the role of the coach.
A coach becomes not only someone responsible for technical instruction, but also part of a wider development process.
The same principle applies to Ferraro's young coaches.
With eight minor trainees already included within its 23-member coaching structure, the organisation is creating a pathway in which younger participants can learn responsibility and professional skills rather than simply waiting for opportunities to appear later.
This creates an internal development cycle: athletes can become future professionals, and young coaches can develop within the same methodology they help deliver.
Creating Consistency Across Locations
The path has not been without obstacles.
Ferraro identifies limited infrastructure, a lack of structured sports education and cultural resistance to discipline and long-term commitment among the challenges the organisation has faced.
For a young leader, those challenges are compounded by the need to establish credibility while building an organisation almost simultaneously.
Rather than waiting for ideal conditions, Ferraro's response has been structural.
The club has developed a multi-location operational system, established a central methodology and maintained consistent standards across its activities.
That approach reflects an important entrepreneurial principle: when the surrounding environment lacks structure, the organisation itself has to create it.
Ferraro's leadership has therefore been less about overcoming one defining obstacle and more about repeatedly turning limitations into systems.
Inclusion Without Lowering the Bar
Another defining element of Ferraro Skating Club is its attempt to balance inclusion and high performance.
The two are sometimes treated as competing priorities in sport. Ferraro's model suggests they can coexist when expectations and development pathways are clearly defined.
The club seeks to attract national and international athletes while simultaneously creating opportunities for younger coaches and developing participants.
The result is a system designed around different stages of development rather than a single definition of success.
For Ferraro, inclusion does not mean abandoning standards. Instead, the emphasis is on creating an environment where more people can develop while maintaining a clear performance culture.
Turning Youth Into an Advantage
Being 23 has presented an obvious credibility challenge—but it may also be becoming part of Ferraro's competitive advantage.
Her generation is growing up in an environment where athletes increasingly understand performance as a combination of physical preparation, psychology, discipline, identity and education.
Ferraro's model reflects that broader understanding.
Instead of building a club around one coach or one technical system, she is building an organisational methodology that can be taught, replicated and carried forward by others.
That distinction matters for scalability.
A club dependent entirely on its founder's personal expertise has natural limits. A club with a coherent methodology and a developing coaching pipeline has the potential to build institutional capability.
Ferraro's decision to invest in young coaches therefore becomes more than a staffing strategy. It is part of how she intends to make the organisation sustainable.
“Build the Conditions”
Ferraro's advice to women entrepreneurs reflects the same philosophy that has shaped her business.
Do not wait for the right conditions. Build them.
For her, leadership is not determined by age or external validation. It is demonstrated through the ability to make decisions, remain consistent and continue carrying a vision forward when circumstances become difficult.
That perspective is particularly relevant to young women entering industries where established expectations can make credibility difficult to earn.
Ferraro's answer is not to lower the standard in order to gain acceptance.
It is to define the standard clearly—and maintain it.
The Next Generation of the Club
Ferraro Skating Club is still young, having been established only in 2025. But its structure already points toward an ambition larger than operating a successful skating club.
The emerging model connects performance, education, mental development, inclusion and professional pathways.
If that system continues to mature, its most important achievement may not be measured only in medals or sporting results.
It may be measured by how many athletes become confident professionals, how many young coaches find a pathway into the industry, and whether a disciplined methodology can create opportunities for the next generation.
At 23, Anita Ferraro is not waiting for the sporting environment around her to become ideal.
She is doing something more entrepreneurial: building the environment she believes should exist.