Kriti Mehrotra
Netflix’s ‘Physical 100: Italy’ follows one hundred of the best athletes in the titular nation as they face off against one another for the title of the best of the best and €100,000. They compete in a series of brutal challenges that test every aspect of their agility, fitness, and strength, as well as their mental stamina and willpower as individual players or team athletes. Amongst those who shine in this original in more ways than one is Sebastian Rodwell, whose experience as a rugby player, a Florence footballer, and a high school educator helped him a lot along the way.
Sebastian Rodwell Has Been a Rugby Athlete Since He Was 17
Although Sebastian Rodwell was born in California in the US to an English father and a German mother, he primarily grew up in Tuscany in Italy, alongside his brother. According to his own accounts, his father is a winemaker, so they relocated when he was just a young boy because the family believed there was no better place for the business than Tuscany. He thus grew up surrounded by good food, beautiful music, and an environment where the love for sports was just as strong as the sense of community and belonging, making him fall in love with football, too.
Sebastian admittedly played football for fun as a youngster, but things changed when he was 17, as he got a chance to try out the sport of rugby for what became the Montelupo Empoli club. “I gave it a try and immediately fell in love with the physical aspect of rugby, the physical competition,” he once candidly said in an interview. “At the time, I alternated between football and rugby, and ultimately chose rugby for the natural connection between the team’s values and the game.” He had no idea that his dedication, passion, and skill set would soon lead him to some big teams.
Sebastian soon found himself joining the Firenze 1931 team, a few months after which he was called up to the Under-17 National Team, Four Nations, and then the Tirrenia Academy. That’s where he got to hone in on his natural talent with an even better training regimen, soon enabling him to secure a spot in the Under-18 National Team and the Under-20 National Team, too. From there, he evolved into a full-time Rugby athlete as he joined Cavalieri Prato in the Eccellenza league, that is, until he realized he wanted to pursue further studies and decided to move to England.
Sebastian Rodwell Has Long Juggled Education, Sports, and Corporate Jobs
Sebastian’s choice to pack up his life and relocate somewhere completely new at the age of 21 was not impulsive at all. In fact, the possibility of combining studies with his beloved sport of rugby without compromising either in any way is what drew him to England. “In England, there’s a university championship for every sport held on Wednesday afternoons, when classes are closed,” he said. “The second is the opportunity to have many opportunities to play rugby. You learn rugby by playing, and there I could play not only on Wednesdays but also on Saturdays and Sundays.”
Therefore, Sebastian enrolled at the University of the West of England to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Sports Business Management and became a student-athlete at its affiliate, Hartpury College. He graduated in 2014 after not only garnering extensive theoretical knowledge but also improving his technical skills, immediately following which he secured a position at the London Irish Rugby Club. He served as Head Coach for the women’s team and Community Marketing Officer for the brand until 2015, all the while also playing for the men’s team for several years. Things changed after his working stint at the London Irish Rugby Club, as he had to balance his love for the sport as an athlete and his full-time career.
After all, Sebastian evolved into a Commercial Manager at Alan Services in 2015, a position he held until he decided to move back to Tuscany, Italy, in 2017. That’s when he joined the Medicei Rugby Club (merger of Firenze Rugby 1931 and I Cavalieri Prato) as a professional athlete and a full-time Marketing Manager & Team-Building Leader. He shifted gears once again in 2020, becoming a freelance Lecturer at the Florence University of the Arts and a Marketing & Business Development professional at Mercafir. It was after this that he found his calling as an educator, serving at the Bilingual School Florence from 2022 to 2023 before relocating to Germany to play for the Deutschland Vlub and teach at European School RheinMain.
Sebastian Rodwell Continues to Proudly Dedicate Himself to Rugby and Teaching
While Sebastian was employed at European School RheinMain in Frankfurt, Germany, from 2023 to 2025, he held several positions that helped him confirm he was on the right track. He was a Secondary School Teacher for 4 months from September 2023 to December 2023 before he became the establishment’s Pedagogical Advisor for 7 months from January 2024 to July 2024. He then rose up to serve as the Sports Activities Coordinator until July 2025, all the while also securing an online International Postgraduate Certificate in Education (iPGCE) from his alma mater. So, he landed the position of a Teacher at the Accadis International School-Bad Homburg in Frankfurt in August 2025, which he proudly maintains to this day.
Whenever Sebastian is not dedicating himself to the younger generation and helping them become the best version of themselves in one way or another, he can be found on the rugby field. In fact, he is currently part of the SC Frankfurt 1880 Rugby Club, all the while also still being part of the Verdi di San Giovanni (the Greens) for traditional Florence football. The latter is reportedly a historic team that competes in the very physical, rather violent, centuries-old traditional contact football festival of Calcio Storico Fiorentino, held annually in Florence, Italy. In other words, if the 36-year-old is not educating or playing, he is either training himself or mentoring youngsters in the sports he adores because he truly likes to test his own limits.
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