Italian Rhythmic Group Looks Forward to 2016 Summer Olympics

After winning the gold medal at the 5 Ribbons event in Rhythmic Group Competition at the 34^th Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart, the Italian group is more than motivated to move forward as they prepare for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

“We will start to work immediately for the Olympic Games,” the team captain of Italian Group, Marta Pagnini said after the competition.

“We’ll have a rest of course, and then we’ll come back to grow as a team, because we are a very young team. Some girls are really new, so it’s important and necessary to grow together.” She continued.

Italy has been the most prominent country in the field of Group Rhythmic Gymnastics in the recent years, being successful at obtaining the Group All-around titles at the World Championships from 2009-2011. Additionally, the country has also won second in Group All-around event from 2013-2014.

In the 2015 World Championships held recently in Stuttgart, the Italians made some mistakes in their routine which kept them off the podium in the All-around competition. However, these things have not affected the persistence of the group to head into the event finals.  The Italian group (Pagnini, Martina Centofanti, Sofia Lodi, Alessia Maurelli, Camilla Patriarca and Andreea Stefanescu) performed last in the 5 Ribbons event, and the group used that as an opportunity to deliver a dramatic exercise, finishing with 17.900 points, the highest score in the said event.

"We knew that we deserved a medal," said Pagnini. "We worked a lot, and everyone said we had very good compositions. We expected a medal from this World Championships, and we are glad that we could do it."

Still invigorated by the 5 Ribbons victory, the Italian group managed to deliver a great routine with the Hoops and Clubs, almost getting the gold after finishing with a score of 18.100, 0.025 points lower compared to Russia.

The Italian team is still unsure whether to keep their old routines for the Olympics or improvise and develop new routines. "With the medals, maybe we will keep the same routines," Pagnini said. "It depends on our coach, of course."

Above all else, the most important thing is being able to stick as a team, said Pagnini, who, aside from Stefanescu, are the remaining Italian team members that took bronze in the 2012 Summer Olympics. "In Izmir (at the 2014 Worlds), we were a really, really new team," she said. "Some of the girls were really young, and we have a big gap in years between each other. It's not always easy to find the right feeling, but we're working on that."

The 2016 Summer Olympics will be held in Rio de Janeiro from 6th to 21^st of August, 2016. All of the gymnastics events will take place at the Arena Olimpica do Rio (Also known as the HSBC Arena.)

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