Milena Baldassarri

Milena Baldassarri (born October 16, 2001 in Ravenna, Italy) is an Italian individual rhythmic gymnast. She is the first Italian individual and the only one to date for winning the silver medal at the World Championship in Sofia 2018.

Baldassarri was already a bronze medalist at the 2016 European Junior Championships. On the National level, she is the 2018 Italian National All-around champion, 2019 Italian National All-around silver medalist, 2017 Italian National All-around bronze medalist, and 2016 Italian Junior National All-around champion.

Career

Junior

Milena started practising rhythmic gymnastics in Ravenna, then in 2014 she moved to Fabriano, and started being trained by the olympian Julieta Cantaluppi and her mum, Kristina Ghiurova. In 2015 she was selected in the Italian national junior group to compete at the 2015 Rhythmic Gymnastics European Championships in Minsk, Belarus. At the 2016 European Junior Championships Baldassarri won team bronze with Alexandra Agiurgiuculese.

Senior

In 2017 Season, Baldassarri made her senior international debut at the International tournament " Città Pesaro, where she managed to win the bronze medal in the All-around, silver at the ribbon final and gold at the club's final, ahead of Russian Ekaterina Selezneva. In May 2017 she competed at 2017 Sofia World Cup, her first world cup, where she took the 10th place in the AA,. On 19–21 May, Baldassarri, along with teammates Alexandra Agiurgiuculese and Alessia Russo represented the individual seniors for Italy at the 2017 European Championships, where she qualified in the ribbon finals finishing in 7th place. On August 5–7, Baldassarri finished 8th in the all-around at the 2017 Minsk World Challenge Cup, she qualified in 2 apparatus finals and finished 7th in ribbon and 4th in ball, with the same score of the 3rd (16.650). Unfortunately, the tie is broken in favour of her teammate Alexandra Agiurgiuculese who received the bronze medal.

Together with Alexandra Agiurgiuculese, Baldassarri represented Italy at the 2017 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Pesaro, where she finished 9th in the All-around ahead of Bulgaria's Katrin Taseva; she also qualified for the ribbon final where she finished in 6th position. She was awarded with Alina Kabaeva Prize.

In 2018 Season, on March 30-April 1, Baldassarri began the world cup events competing at the 2018 Sofia World Cup finishing 12th in the all-around, she qualified in hoop finals finishing in 5th. on April 13–15; Baldassarri competed at the 2018 Pesaro World Cup finishing 9th in the all-around, she qualified in the ribbon final. On April 27–29, she then competed in the event at the 2018 Baku World Cup where she won finished 8th in the all-around behind Japan's Kaho Minagawa, she then qualified in 1 event final. On May 4–6, she competed at the 2018 Guadalajara World Challenge Cup where she had a new highest rank all-around placement finishing 4th in the all-around behind Russia's Arina Averina, Baldassarri had an overall successful event qualifying in all apparatus finals, she won her first world cup medal a silver in ball behind Linoy Ashram, she also won a bronze in clubs, finished 5th with ribbon and hoop. On May 16–17, Baldassarri competed at the 2018 Holon Grand Prix finishing 7th in the all-around behind Salome Pazhava, she qualified in 2 apparatus finals where she won her first Grand Prix gold medal in ribbon, she also won bronze in ball.

Again with Alexandra Agiurgiuculese, Baldassarri represented Italy at the 2018 Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships in Sofia. She won the silver medal at the ribbon apparatus, becoming at 16 years old the first individual Italian gymnast who ever won an apparatus silver medal in the World Championship.

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