#sofia arosio

Sofia Arosio

Sofia used to be a REALLY promising junior from GAL Lissone (Ferlito and Meneghini’s club), so much so that she was included in the RTT2020 project. Her standout event was beam, where she had a very clean style and lots of potential for upgrades (here’s her BB from 2016, already downgraded). Sadly, she was literally PLAGUED by injuries which severely hampered her training. She had a few comebacks, with watered down routines, but so far she hasn’t managed to get back to an interesting level of difficulty, so I don’t know how much she can factor in, as of now, in the senior team. She has been invited to the first senior camp of 2018, though which is encouraging! VT/UB are not her forte, but on FX she has a really nice quality of movement, her dance elements are pretty and her tumbling gets quite a lot of height for being so smol (here her FX from 2015, featuring a nice triple twist)

Martina Basile

Probably the most well-known among the new Italian seniors, she medaled twice at junior euros in Bern in 2016 (AA bronze and VT silver). She trains with Sara Berardinelli at the Rome Academy. She’s a solid AAer with great power but also clean execution. Her weakest event is UB even tho she’s been working on it lately and upgraded a bit. On VT she has a really nice 1.5 yurchenko with that looks upgradable in the near future. One of the few Italians to have a double arabian at all, let alone as a junior, she debuted a DLO at 2017 Italian nats. Here is her beam from the same meet, where she debuted a bhs mount and showed consistency on this event by hitting twice when most of the seniors fell all over the place. Anyway, I’m assuming she’s currently injured because she wasn’t invited to the first 2018 camp :’)

Maria Vittoria Cocciolo

Another lovely gymnast to keep an eye out for. She’s from a relatively unknown club called WSA, of which she’s clearly the star. She suffered an elbow injury that kept her out of competition for about a year which was very unfortunate. She recently competed at the Combs la Ville meet and did very well, here’s her UB (decent) and BB (really nice) from that meet. Beam is definitely her standout event, where she usually hits crisp routines with interesting D (among the first Italians to do a side aerial to loso). On floor she legit could be the whole package cause her back flexibility is lovely and allows for great ring leaps, she has great carriage and personality, her twisting form is very pretty, and her tumbling is also powerful so if she stays healthy for .5 seconds I can see her upgrading.

Sydney Saturnino

I just realized all of the 2002 seniors have two things in common: nice beam workers, and very injury prone. Sydney makes no exception. She’s lovely and very original on beam (I’m sad the only recent routine I can find is this one with a bad fall when she usually stays on but oh well), and has also potential on floor. Around April 2017 she was training a DTY but so far it is still in the making. I was hoping she’d go to EYOF because none of the 2003 girls are inspiring on beam (Villa aside), but she had small but nagging injuries. Out of this lot, she’s one of my favorites and I hope she stays healthy in the future. Btw, her mom is from the Philippines, while her dad is from the beautiful Italian island of Ischia, and they decided to name their daughter Sydney after the place where they first met and got married (Sydney, Australia) AWW!

The three remaining girls aren’t on the National team, but I’ve included them as they’re competing in the Serie A meets and are from important Italian clubs so who knows.

Emma Grisetti

Sister of Giada Grisetti, she recently got Italian citizenship and trains at the Centro Sport Bollate club. I don’t see her factoring in the Italian team any time soon, as she’s still not at a great level, training-wise. But the potential is there and CSB is well known for producing lovely UB/BB workers so who knows!

Deborah Salmina Arroyo

Deborah is from the same club as Emma and she also comes from Switzerland, where her parents still live (her mom is from Venezuela tho LOL yay multicultural background!). Here’s a short documentary about her in Spanish with English subs. Beam is probably her best event, but she’s been steadily improving a lot recently even on UB.

Stefania Tagliabue

Marco Campodonico (Brixia coach): This year, in terms of the competitions we took part in, we started off with the national championships, that is Serie A and B, that proved to be a test both for the gymnasts who could make the Euro team, and for the younger gymnasts who needed experience. We had good results in Serie A, with very important help from the seniors. As far as juniors are concerned, Linari did a good job on the events that are easier for her, like beam and floor. Whereas Giorgia had a great journey, confirming the expectations that are being placed upon her, by competing in this championship with ups and downs due to her young age, but showing off her excellent qualities and technical abilities.

Noemi Linari: Last year, I took part in the Serie A1 championship for the first time, with very high level athletes that were, and still are, some of my idols and for that I was very emotional. This year I competed again and I helped the team (Brixia)repeat as champions.

Sofia Arosio: After my back injury, my first competition was the Rome Serie A, that is the third competition. I only competed floor, because it’s the event I can express myself better on, and the one where I can get back my difficulty more easily after a period of rest. Rome was very thrilling for me because the arena was huge, and all those people watching me made me feel very emotional, and when I ended my floor routine I was so happy that I started crying and hugging everyone while crying because I was so excited to be back and to be well again after my injury!

Claudia Ferré (GAL coach): We had quite a few injury periods. We also had some satisfactions because this year you had a good way to show what you got during the Serie A. Sadly you couldn’t compete in all competitions due to your back injury, but we got where we wanted. We had a period of difficult choices, like whether to do double training and how to make it work with school. We stood our ground (for the double training I think) and I think we made the right choice, and now we’re working on the program for these girls that will prepare for the Tokyo quad. Can I ask you a question? Are you ready and looking forward to following in Elisa’s (Meneghini) footsteps and making the national team?

Sofia: Yes, I’ll give it everything I got!

Claudia: I do? (mocking the standard wedding phrasing lol)

Sofia: Yes hahah.

Francesca Cavallo (Olos Gym coach): I have mixed feelings about the Serie A championship 2016. Compared to the previous year, we started off very confident and we thought we could do better than 2015, or at least that we could compete in a more relaxed and confident way. However, halfway through the championship we found ourselves uncertain about whether or not we would be able to remain in Serie A. This made us very nervous and even the girls started feeling the stress. And the way they reacted was beautiful. It was one of the few times in which I was surprised by their reaction and the maturity they showed, despite being one of the youngest teams in the championship. Seeing their teamwork was very gratifying for me, because this meant that the work we put in on a psychological and attitudinal level paid off. The moment in which Benedetta (Ciammarughi) surprised me more, was when she debuted in Serie A. She had been training with us for a year, and she was still very insecure, but the team needed another gymnast and in our club she was the only one who could fill the spot by giving an important contribution to the team. Benedetta was told only a few days before the debut. We didn’t tell her earlier because we wanted her to be able to train in a relaxed way, without feeling the pressure of an important moment for her. She entered the competition field with the confidence of a gymnast with experience and maturity. We weren’t expecting it from such a young girl, and in those 4 months she surprised us on the psychological level, in the way she handled all of these new things without letting them get to her.

Benedetta Ciammarughi: The Serie A experience was great because we got to stay all together. We traveled together and we stayed in the hotels together. I could never compete AA because of some pain in my heels and calves, for which I had to rest for a long time as well. For this reason I was a bit scared because of the low technical level of my exercises. The championship went well, in general, and we managed to help each other out despite being all a bit anxious because none of us had a lot of experience.

Martina Basile: At the beginning of the championship, the tension was very high because, being the youngest team, we were scared we could be demoted. But in the end we put in a lot of effort and we managed not to be demoted and to stay in Serie A1.

Martina Granato: I did artistic gymnastics for 10 years, and this year, after the Serie A, I decided to retire. The reason was that I didn’t feel like I belonged in the gymnastics world any longer because it requires a lot of sacrifice, and also because of physical issues. First I told my best friend and coaches about my retirement and, right after, I told my teammates. I remember that when I told Benedetta she started crying, and then I started crying as well because I felt very bad, and then all my teammates hugged me and I felt even worse. Despite this, however, I feel like I made the right decision for myself, because now I feel happier.

Caterina Cereghetti: The Serie A championship is made up of 4 competitions and this year we won almost all of them (she’s talking about Serie A2, where her team competed). We really weren’t expecting this because we had never taken part in similar competitions. So we were very surprised but also very happy. During the first competitions, I couldn’t do AA because of physical problems, but then I recovered and in the final competition I could at least compete on two events.