Since the recent Women’s European Championships in Patras everyone is talking about the great success of the Dutch girls - and they certainly deserve it! But, considering the success of that team already at the Worlds‘ in Ghent and several other international competitions, this, maybe not that high but still, somehow had been expected. – The bigger surprise in Patras has been caused by another team – Italy! A rising gym nation in the women’s as well as the men’s field in the 1990ies, it then has been a bit quiet around them at the beginning of the new millenium. But now the quiet times seem to be over – Italy is back! With the bronze medal in the team competition and various spots in the finals of the women’s team in Patras and the success of the men’s team last year in Ghent, rounded off by the bronze medal of Andrea Coppolino on rings, they seem to look for a bright future again. – Certainly enough reason for gymworld to follow their tracks a little bit...

When the Italian junior women’s team ranked 4th at the Junior European Championships in 1996 and Adriana Crisci won the silver medal in the junior’s all-around at the same competition a new gym nation seemed to be on its’ way to the top of women’s gymnastics. And, although they didn’t make it totally to the top, during the following years Italy was a solid competitor at many international events, led by Adriana Crisci, Martina Bremini and Monica Bergamelli. At the Worlds’ 1999 in Tijanjin they ranked 9th with their team which meant they had qualified for the Olympics’ 2000 in Sydney. There, they ranked 11th and Martina Bremini and Monica Bergamelli became 17th & 18th in the all-around. This was maybe not a perfect, but still a very good result for a western European nation. Afterwards they faced the same problem as many other countries also, a lot of their stars retired. Only Monica Bergamelli was left from the Sydney-team and Italy couldn’t even sent a women’s team to Ghent as they simply didn’t have enough senior gymnasts.

However, there were some promising juniors and those juniors turned senior this year. Maria Teresa Gargano and Ilaria Colombo presented a very good competition at the European Championships in Patras and secured the medal for their team. This was rounded off by the 9th rank of Gargano and the 12th of Monica Bergamelli in the all-around and various good results in the apparatus finals. Also the Italian juniors competed well with good all-around results of Michela Merzario and Marika Pestrin and a 6th place in the team competition. Support for the senior team might not only come from the juniors in future but also from Adriana Crisci who resumed training last year after she had began coaching in September and started to feel that she still wanted to do gymnastics herself. Not yet back in old form, she didn’t qualify for the European Championships but that can change soon and we might see her at the Worlds’ in Debrecen. A lot of fans of the friendly gymnast who is always good for a joke would be very happy about that.

For a long time there was one synonym for Italian men’s gymnastics – Juri Chechi. The super-strong gymnast was simply unbeatable on rings and this led in the years 1990 - ‘96 to four titles at Euros’, four at Worlds’ and – last but not least- the Olympic gold medal in Atlanta. Of course it is always difficult to compensate when such a gymnast retires and this had also been the case in Italy. With at 14th place in Tijanjin ‘99, they didn’t manage to send at team to Sydney and also the individual results at the Olympics were quite bad as well as the results at the Euros’ in Bremen. However, 2001 in Ghent a big surprise could be seen – Italy ranked 9th in the team competition, placed two gymnasts in the all-around final, earned three spots in apparatus finals and left Ghent with the bronze medal of Andrea Coppolino on rings. – How comes, did they eat a special pizza before the competition? – Probably not. Seriously, the reasons are probably numerous, one might be the fact that Chechi’s former coach Bruno Franceschetti returned to coach the Italian men’s team. He had disappeared after Chechi retired, the question is unsettled why the Italian federation didn’t try to keep the coach of such a successful gymnast.... However, he is back now and has brought back to the gymnasts what was mainly missing- the positive attitude towards their performances and the mind to win. - Hopefully, the Italian men as well as also the women will keep this for a long time and will continue delighting fans (and judges!) with their performances!

annalisa & lisa