Physical 100: Italy winner: Emanuele Bruno takes the €100,000

Spoiler warning: this article covers all of Physical 100: Italy, including the final and the winner.

Also known as: Physical Italia: da 100 a 1 (in Italy), Habilidad física 100: Italia (Netflix in Spanish) and 100 % Physique : Italie (Netflix in French).

Italy’s version of Netflix’s Physical 100 has already sent home an Olympic gymnastics champion, an Olympic wrestling champion, swimming great Federica Pellegrini, a TV star and one of the country’s biggest YouTubers. Six men made the final, and on 2 October Emanuele Bruno took the €100,000 and the title of Italy’s most complete body.

How the final played out

The final six started with an obstacle course run in two heats, and three men came through it. Surf champion Edoardo Papa withdrew from his heat almost immediately, and Bruno, by his own standards, struggled, but finished inside the time limit.

Next came an endurance pull-up test with no upper limit. Firefighter Tommaso Nisi outlasted everyone to take the first place in the final. Bruno then won a sudden-death pull-up tiebreak for the second, against footballer Matteo Sartori, who finished third.

The decider was a push-of-war: Bruno and Nisi faced each other on top of an aqueduct with a movable wall between them, each trying to drive it, and his opponent, backwards. According to The National’s recap, it went on for nearly two hours before Bruno finally pushed Nisi back.

It completes a remarkable turnaround. In episode 5, Bruno’s own team cut him; he came back captaining a team of rejects that won its chariot heat outright. Nisi was one of those rejects too, so the final came down to two men from the team nobody wanted. Bruno leaves with the €100,000.

Physical 100: Italy finalists: the final six

Six men went into the final. Every woman in the competition is now out, and so are the four contenders we picked out last week: butcher Paolo Masella, Olympic wrestling champion Andrea Minguzzi and fighters Sebastian Rodwell and Daniele Scatizzi.

• Manuel Lombardo – judo champion. Hung on for close to an hour to win episode 7’s Grid of Heroes, which earned him the right to choose his opponents in the final.
• Tommaso Nisi – firefighter. According to DMTalkies’ recap, he’s the pick of the eliminated contestants to win.
• Edoardo Papa – Italian surf champion. He won the opening chariot lap by a wide margin and was the last man to let go of the bar before Lombardo.
• Emanuele Bruno – judo champion and captain of the “rejects” team, assembled from contestants the other teams had cut, which won its chariot heat outright. The eventual winner: read his full profile.
• Matteo Sartori – footballer. He planned Team Rodwell’s chariot strategy, and his captain chose to save him when one teammate had to go.
• Giulio Domi – DJ. Sartori saved him in the same survival pick.

The finalists and eliminations are confirmed by Il Messaggero’s episode 6–7 review and DMTalkies’ recap. The finalists’ backgrounds come from Netflix’s cast list as published on Italian Wikipedia.

For everyone else in the arena, from Federica Pellegrini and Jury Chechi to the full list of 100, see our Physical 100: Italy cast guide.

How episodes 6 and 7 played out

Episode 6: the chariot race

Six teams of four each had to drag a chariot, harnessed to one athlete at a time, over four laps. The load rose each lap, from 100 kg to 110, 120 and finally 145 kg. A contestant who couldn’t finish could hand over after a 30-second penalty, leaving the next teammate to pull both laps.

Emanuele Bruno’s team of rejects, the side the others had tried to get rid of, won its heat outright. Alvise Rigo’s team, which had already survived one elimination by winning the Pillars of Hercules, missed out by nine seconds to Minguzzi’s team and was eliminated, taking Federica Pellegrini with it. Team Scatizzi, which needed more than 15 minutes to finish, went out too. The two teams that had only qualified on time then had to cut one more member each.

Episode 7: the Grid of Heroes

The last 14 then had to hang from bars above a pool, and the first eight to drop were out. It was a callback to the opening plank above the pool, this time as a pure hang, and it went on for a very long time. Minguzzi, one of the heaviest men left, lasted close to 28 minutes. Susy Scutto passed 30, and Sara Del Prete, the last woman in the competition, reached about 36. Rodwell held on for around 53 minutes before dropping, which is remarkable for a man of his size.

Lombardo outlasted everyone at close to an hour. Hanging that long is mostly grip and shoulder endurance, plus a willingness to sit in pain – which is why a simple grip test says more about your fitness than you’d think.

We’ve illustrated every challenge so far, from the grid plank to the Grid of Heroes, with how to train for each one: Physical 100: Italy challenges explained.

What the final looks like

The preview at the end of episode 7 shows the final opening with an obstacle course: 20 minutes to complete five laps, in two heats of three. The winner of each heat goes straight through to the semi-final.

As the hang winner, Lombardo chose his heat. He picked DJ Giulio Domi and footballer Matteo Sartori, avoiding Nisi and Papa, whom he’d named as the real threats. That leaves Papa, Bruno and Nisi in the other heat. What came next, endurance pull-ups and a push-of-war, is in how the final played out.

The biggest moments so far

An hour and 27 minutes. The opening endurance test was a plank on a suspended grid of bars above a pool, hands gripping one bar and feet on another, while laser beams switched on at intervals. CrossFit athlete Elisa Fuliano won it, lasting more than one hour and 27 minutes, and the bottom 20 went home. Holding a plank that long, gripping a bar the whole time, tests the trunk, shoulders, hands and stubbornness – and grip is worth having: it’s one of the best simple markers of how well you are ageing.

The Olympian who picked the wrong opponent. Jury Chechi, the 1996 Olympic rings champion, chose MMA fighter and personal trainer Ivano Salerno for his one-on-one duel. Salerno outlasted him in the three-minute possession battle and one of the show’s most decorated athletes was out in the first week.

The celebrity exits. Elisabetta Canalis lost her duel to Fuliano, and content creator Luis Sal lost his to powerlifter Filippo Pici. Actor and former rugby player Alvise Rigo saw his whole team eliminated, then brought them back by winning the Pillars of Hercules redemption challenge.

What Mexico tells us about who wins

If Physical 100: Mexico is any guide, don’t bet on the biggest body. Mexico’s winner, Ángel Quintero, was a 38-year-old obstacle racer who’d been knocked out once and came back. He won on laps and loaded carries, not on maximum lifts. Late-stage Physical 100 challenges tend to reward endurance, pacing and the ability to keep working when everyone else’s forearms have gone – the same qualities that decide hybrid races like HYROX and CrossFit.

That pattern has held in Italy so far. The heaviest men are gone, and the last six are two judoka, a surfer, a firefighter, a footballer and a DJ. Lombardo has already shown he can outlast everyone, and an obstacle-course opener suits Nisi and Papa. In the end, it was Emanuele Bruno.

Physical 100: Italy FAQ

When is the Physical 100: Italy final?

Episode 8, the final, was released on Netflix on 2 October 2026. Emanuele Bruno won, and Tommaso Nisi was runner-up.

Who are the Physical 100: Italy finalists?

Manuel Lombardo, Tommaso Nisi, Edoardo Papa, Emanuele Bruno, Matteo Sartori and Giulio Domi. All the women were eliminated before the final.

How much does the Physical 100: Italy winner get?

The winner takes home €100,000.

How many episodes does Physical 100: Italy have?

Eight, released over four Fridays from 11 September to 2 October 2026.

Who won Physical 100: Mexico?

Ángel Quintero, a Spartan and HYROX racer from Naucalpan, won the first Mexican edition and 3 million pesos.