ROME (ITALPRESS) – “I am announcing my retirement now. I had already decided it before Paris: this Olympics would be the last act of my competitive affair. I wished it to be the finale of my career. I am sorry it was not. But the time has come to say enough and, believe me, I am calm. Physically the injuries are taking their toll.” In an interview with ‘BresciaOggì, Vanessa Ferrari made official her retirement from competitive activity, in fact almost a foregone conclusion after yet another injury cost her participation in the Paris Olympics. Born in Orzinuovi on Nov. 10, 1990, the Lombardy outfielder was world champion in 2006, European champion in 2007, and vice-champion in floor exercise at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The first Italian athlete to graduate as an artistic gymnastics world champion, a performance achieved in Aarhus (Denmark) in 2006, she was awarded the gold collar of sporting merit by the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) in the same year and, in early 2007, received the presidential honor of Knight of Merit of the Republic. She boasts in her international palmares, in addition to the 2006 title, one Olympic silver, one silver and three world bronze medals, eight medals at the European Championships between 2006 and 2021 (including four golds), five World Cup victories between 2007 and 2021 and eight golds in two editions of the Mediterranean Games, making her the most successful Italian sportswoman in the history of this event. She took part in four editions of the Olympic Games, the first Italian gymnast to succeed in that feat. Since 2009, she has competed for the Italian Army’s sports group, an armed force in which she holds the rank of corporal major. At the national level, she holds 22 titles (7 in the overall competition) at the absolute championships, the first of which she won in 2004, and 11 championships won with the Brixia team in the A1 Series Championship. Nicknamed the ‘Butterflyà of Orzinuovi and the ‘Cannibalè,’ she was also the first Italian gymnast to have performed the Tsukahara screwed “Silivas,” a double backflip collected with a double twist.- Photo Ipa Agency -(ITALPRESS).
