[13] In December 2020, at 15 years of age, Pilato set a world junior record in the long course 50 metre breaststroke at the 2020 Italian Winter National Swimming Championships, in Riccione, with a time of 29.61 seconds.

[23] At the 2021 European Junior Swimming Championships, held in early July in Rome, Pilato won the gold medal in the 50 metre breaststroke with a time of 30.13 seconds, and contributed a split of 1:06.58 for the breaststroke leg of the 4×100 metre mixed medley relay in the preliminaries before being substituted out and Simone Cerasuolo substituted in for the finals relay, which went on to be disqualified while swimming.

[29] Leading up to the 2021 European Short Course Swimming Championships held at the Palace of Water Sports in Kazan, Russia in November, Pilato was highlighted as a competitor to watch in one of the top five female races, the 100 metre breaststroke, by SwimSwam.

[30] Pilato won her prelims heat in the 100 metre breaststroke on day one of competition, 2 November, with a time of 1:05.23 and ranked fourth amongst Italian swimmers, sixth overall.

[36][37] Pilato entered to compete in one individual event at the 2021 World Short Course Championships in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, the 50 metre breaststroke.

[45] At the 2022 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, she won the gold medal in the 100 metre breaststroke at 17 years of age, swimming a time of 1:05.93 in the final to finish five-hundredths of a second ahead of silver medalist Anna Elendt of Germany.

[52] On the third day of the 2022 European Aquatics Championships, held in Rome in August, Pilato won the gold medal in the 100 metre breaststroke with a time of 1:05.97.

[58][59][60] Later in the same session, she split a 1:05.65 for the breaststroke leg of the 4×100 metre medley relay in the final, helping place fourth and finish less than three-tenths of a second behind the team from the Netherlands that won the bronze medal.

[61] For the 2022 World Short Course Championships, held in December in Melbourne, Australia, Pilato placed fifteenth in the first of her two individuals events, the 100 metre breaststroke, on the second day of competition with a time of 1:05.46 in the semifinals that did not qualify her to the final.