A new quad has begun and after Rio, Italy is ready to become a stronger team. It looks like there won’t be any retirements among the “old” ladies yet. But here’s a look on what’s going to happen next.
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Vanessa Ferrari had surgery on her foot just after Rio. Her tendons have been problematic since 2008, so, after many unsuccessful operations, she probably isn’t going to heal completely, but that is not stopping her from continuing her career. Indeed, even if she was supposed to retire after Rio, coming 4th again at the Olympics has reignited her desire to compete. She has both European and World medals, she only lacks the Olympic one. Doctors also found some problems on her shoulder and after a surgery, she’s slowly getting into shape to see if her body still allows her to be a competitive gymnast. Lately she’s showing some upgrades, like a layout stepout mount on beam, a whip+triple full on floor, and also what could be her new front pass, a double Arabian, but just on a trampoline so far. She isn’t aiming to go to Montreal’ World this year, but she seems to have a long term goal, Tokyo. Currently she’s also starting to coach the younger girls, a career she will probably continue later in her life.
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Carlotta Ferlito isn’t retiring either. After taking some time off to take advantage of the opportunities after Rio, she’s back to the gym. She was supposed to be back in the competitive area for the 2017 Mediterranean games, but since they’ve been delayed to 2018, we could probably see her at Worlds’ selection later this year.
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Erika Fasana, who competed injured in Rio, had surgery as well, on both her arm and tibia, and she has started to move the first passes on the gym floor a few months back. Erika hasn’t been to lucky with injuries in the last few years and certainly she still hasn’t unveiled all her potential yet.
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Other gymnasts include Elisa Meneghini, Lara Mori and Martina Rizzelli, who are healthy and desirous to continue in the sport. Enus Mariani, who suffered an ankle injury just before Rio, underwent surgery recently for a broken toe. After the rehab, she’s going to try to upgrade her routines for the the COP.
Italian gymnastics is also looking stronger lately, with a bunch of great juniors and brand new seniors.
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Giorgia Villa, a 2003 girl, has stunned everybody by winning all the gold medals at the Comb Le Ville competition in France. Giorgia has a very good DTY, she has stunning lines on bars, where she’s learning combinations such as Maloney+Pak+ Chow, and her floor is already at the senior level with a great triple twist, a full-in, front double twist to front tuck and a double piked. Giorgia looks very promising for the future of the Italian gymnastics, and everybody is trying not to jinx her.
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Asia and Alice D’Amato, 2003 twin sisters, are both looking great too. Both have DTYs, promising bars sets and a very good difficulty considering they’ve just become juniors.
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Elisa Iorio, a 2003 gymnast who has interesting combo on bars and a DTY on vault.
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Martina Maggio, a new senior who won medals on vault, beam and floor in Jesolo last year, is set to become a very good asset to the team, especially now that many seniors are coming back from injuries and breaks. Martina has a DTY, an entertaining floor routine and nice combinations on beam. Even if she’s not 100% healthy, she should be in full force in a few months.
All these gymnasts plus Francesca Noemi Linari, Alessia Federici, Clara Beccalossi, Sofia Arosio, Sara Berardinelli, Martina Basile, Maria Vittoria Cocciolo, Bendetta Ciammarughi, Caterina Cereghetti and Martina Granato are part of a very interesting experiment, a web serie done by “Ginnastica Artistica Italiana” for the Italian Federation named “ Fate, Road to Tokyo 2020”. The serie is available on the official channel of the FGI . 10 episodes of 12 minutes to learn everything about these young gymnasts and to see their journey to get to Tokyo.
Honestly, this is the best group of junior gymnasts that Italy has ever had. They have difficulty, most of them have also the execution and a lot of time to improve their consistency, hoping they won’t follow “the curse” of the Italian juniors, that is being great in the juniors years and not living their potential when they become seniors. In Jesolo, this team is not going to leave the USA win so easily.
Serie A 2017 – Torino
Beside all of this, in the last weekend the first meet of the Serie A took place in Turin. Like previously said, almost all the big names weren’t there, aside from Lara Mori and Elisa Meneghini, where the latter just competed on vault, and this was a great opportunity for the younger girls.
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Giorgia Villa was the winner of the AA with a good 56.45 (55.25 without bonus). She has a big routine on bars, where many Italians are lacking, with a Maloney+tkachev+pak combination, a Chow+bail to handstand and a full-in (13.70). On floor, she started with a triple turn, a stuck full-in, a front double twist with a few steps forward, a stuck triple twist and a double tuck with a small hop on the landing (13.90). Her DTY was solid as usual ( 14.45), while her beam had a couple of wobbles (13.20).
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Giada Grisetti was in 2nd place. She performed a beautiful routine on bars, where she has great lines and a good difficulty too, with a inbar 1/1+Maloney+bail, stalder 1/1, tkachev, inbar ½+ endo+ double front dismount ( 13.95). The FTY on vault was well done, (13.85), while she had problems on beam (12.30).
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Asia D’Amato went for a clean DTY (14.40) and had a few big checks on beam. On floor, she hit a good double arabian and a nice full-in despite a big hop, than sadly she had a big meltdown on bars, where she fell on the Ricna, had a big break on the bail, missed a few handstands and almost fell on the double front dismount ( 10.95).
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Her twin Alice unvailed the DTY, which was well done but with a low chest on the landing (13.95). She was clean on bars, with a Maloney+tkachev combination, and a double front dismount (13.70) but had a hard time on floor,falling and going OOB ( 11.70).
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Elisa Iorio was doing great on bars after a Ricna+ pak combination, but fell on the Maloney. She finished the routine with a beautiful endo+endo 1/1 + double front with a half twist dismount (13.15). Her DTY was messy (13.80) and both beam and floor need work in the execution department.
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Elisa Meneghini just went for a clean FTY on vault (13.80), Lara Mori hit a good beam set ( 13.30), had problems on bars ( 10.80) and floor ( 12.60) and had no repulsion from the table on the FTY ( 13.45). Arianna Rocca hit the highest score on beam with a solid routine and one of the most beautiful roundoff + layout I’ve ever seen (13.55) and had a nice tsukahara full on vault ( 13.65).
Watch the entire competition ( both WAG and MAG)
Article: Giuly Holzer
Cover Photo: Nadia Boyce