Valentino Rossi, (born February 16, 1979 in Urbino), is an Italian professional motorcycle racer (motorcycle sport) and multiple MotoGP (Grand Prix motorcycles) World Champion. He is one of the most successful motorcycle racers of all time, with 9 Grand Prix World Championships (List of Grand Prix motorcycle racing World champions) to his name.

Following his father, Graziano Rossi, Rossi started racing in Grand Prix (Grand Prix motorcycle racing) in 1996 (1996 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season) for Aprilia in the 125cc (cubic centimetre) category and won his first World Championship the following year. From there, he moved up to the 250cc category with Aprilia and won the 250cc World Championship (List of 250cc Motorcycle World Champions) in 1999. He won the 500cc World Championship (List of 500cc/MotoGP Motorcycle World Champions) with Honda in 2001, the MotoGP World Championships (also with Honda) in 2002 and 2003, and continued his streak of back-to-back championships by winning the 2004 (2004 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season) and 2005 (2005 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season) titles after leaving Honda to join Yamaha (Yamaha Motor Company), before regaining the title in 2008 (2008 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season) and retaining it in 2009 (2009 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season).

Rossi is first in all time 500 cc/MotoGP (Grand Prix motorcycle racing#MotoGP class) race wins standings, with 78 victories, and second in all time overall wins standings with 104 race wins (behind Giacomo Agostini with 122).