MILAN — An interview with Nerio Alessandri, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Technogym, will leave you reconsidering your health regimen.
“Health and longevity are the true, new luxury experience,” Alessandri remarked, ticking off the benefits sports deliver, in addition to fitness — “intellectual lucidity, self-esteem and self-confidence, more energy and more creativity.”
Technogym is the official supplier of the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics and Paralympics, which marks the 10th time it has been the official partner of the Games, from Sydney in 2000 to Paris in 2024.
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“We are training 3,500 athletes for Milano Cortina; what better occasion to create aspiration and emulation?” he said.
Speaking ahead of the Olympics opening ceremony on Friday, when he will be a torchbearer in Milan, Alessandri said this is “a topical moment” to underscore the importance of wellness, a word he proudly said Technogym has trademarked in combination with other terms, having coined it over 30 years ago to define its lifestyle brand and philosophy.
Technogym is recognized as “The Wellness Company,” and other trademarks include “Wellness System,” comprising fitness equipment, software and health services. In Cesena, Italy, where the company is headquartered, Alessandri created the Wellness Valley in 2003, promoted by the Wellness Foundation, also his brainchild.
For the Games, Technogym will set up around 22 training centers for the more than 3,500 athletes arriving from more than 90 countries that will participate in 16 disciplines. The centers will have a total number of around 1,000 pieces of equipment.
The main training structures will be located inside the six Olympic and Paralympic villages in Milan, Cortina, Predazzo, Livigno, Bormio and Anterselva.
Coinciding with the Olympics, Alessandri conceived two projects: Milano Wellness City and Cortina in Wellness.
The former’s goal is to promote a healthy lifestyle, “merging wellness with fashion, food, art, tourism and science to improve the quality of life of citizens and to generate new opportunities for the territory,” said Alessandri, lamenting how “models and fashion do not represent healthy standards.” A group of 15 partners, from universities and hospitals to media, have kicked off 50 projects and the foundation will measure the advancements, with a final report to be released in 2030.
Cortina in Wellness aims to transform the town at the foot of the Dolomites into a “Wellness destination, creating expertise to deliver wellness holidays,” he said.
Sports are an antidote to stress, the abuse of social media, and a sedentary lifestyle, and prevent the use of alcohol and drugs, he continued. “Sports promote discipline and aspirational values. Think of [Alpine ski racer] Federica Brignone, and her determination to recover from the injury last year to compete at the Olympics now,” said Alessandri. “After the pandemic, we’ve seen an acceleration in the interest in health as a priority. ”
In 1983, at the age of 22, Alessandri combined his passion for innovation and technology and sport — hence the name of the company — to design and build his first piece of gym equipment in his garage in Cesena, Italy. In 1993, Technogym introduced wellness: a lifestyle based on regular physical exercise, a balanced diet and a positive mental attitude.
As a designer himself, he has worked with Norman Foster, among others, and the Technogym Village inaugurated in 2012 was designed by ACPV Architects Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel. In fact, over the years, Technogym has won over 50 international design awards, such as the Compasso d’Oro and the Red Dot Design Award.
The company employs over 2,500 people, half of whom work at the Technogym Village, and the rest at subsidiaries in Europe, the United States, Asia, the Middle East, Australia and South America. Every day, 70 million people train with Technogym in 100,000 wellness centers and 500,000 private homes across more than 120 countries.
Asked what sparked such a strong drive to support wellness, Alessandri was pensive and attributed it to “a positive obsession. My dream as an entrepreneur was to leave a mark and a real legacy to future generations. As any founder of a company, considering it as a child, I want to give it eternity, health and longevity, and the most natural path is to create culture and to be part of a cultural model of innovation.”
In the world of football, the company is the official supplier of Juventus, Inter, and AC Milan, and has been collaborating for many years with leading Formula 1 teams such as Ferrari and McLaren. Technogym also supports world-class champions across various disciplines, including Moto GP legend Marc Márquez and tennis star Carlos Alcaraz.
While his family controls the company, Technogym is publicly listed in Italy. In the first nine months of 2025, consolidated revenues rose 14 percent to 708.5 million euros, compared with the same period the previous year.
The gain was driven by both its business-to-business division, up 15 percent to to 567.9 million euros, and its business-to-consumer channel, up 10.1 percent to 140.5 million euros, and across all its main markets.
Sales in the Americas rose 23.6 percent to 118.4 million euros. Revenues in Europe grew 11.8 percent to 328.4 million euros and in Italy they rose 18.4 percent to 76.4 million euros. The Asia-Pacific region reported a 7.5 percent growth to 92.7 million euros, and the Middle East, India and Africa area was up 13.7 percent to 92.5 million euros.
Technology, which is inherent in the name of the brand, is also key to Alessandri. The trademarked Technogym Checkup evaluates physical, functional and cognitive parameters through AI and calculates the person’s Wellness Age — the real measure of the body’s physical and functional health. It channels the data into the fully connected Technogym Ecosystem, where it becomes the foundation for the Precision Program — a fully personalized training plan powered by Technogym’s App AI Coach. The company launched its first fitness industry software in 1996, and introduced the first online-connected equipment in 2006, followed in 2012 by the debut of the first cloud-based platform.
