TO eight years she entered a gym in Ferrara, twenty years later she announced her retirement from the same city on the stage of the Teatro Nuovo. The story of Alessia Maurelli ends where it beganwith a perfect hoop worthy of his best performances with the Butterflies of the Italian national rhythmic gymnastics team.
Alessia Maurelli leaves the Rhythmic Butterflies
The national team captain chose the Top Ferrara Sport evening to announce her farewell to competitive activity, after a career that saw her star in three Olympicsa record shared with her partner Martina Centofanti and former athletes Elisa Santoni and Elisa Bianchi, winning two bronzes between Tokyo and Parisas well as a fourth place in Rio de Janeiro.
A twenty year long story
«About twenty years ago, a little girl of just eight years old entered a gym in Ferrara pto try out a new sport: rhythmic gymnastics – said Maurelli, a 28-year-old born in Rivoli but raised in Occhiobello, in the Polesine area – She was a child full of talent and enthusiasm and as soon as he stepped onto the platform, he realized that this was his favorite place».
The captain of the Rhythmic Butterflies bids farewell to the sport she has loved for 20 years and for which she has achieved many successes (Getty Images)
At 17 years old the national team
In a moving letter read during the evening, Maurelli retraced the fundamental stages of his career: from coach Livia in the early years until being called up to the national team at 17, when she was on the verge of retiring. «What until then had been a dream in the longest nights full of questions had become reality and he would have carried the tricolor around the world” recalled the athlete.
Growing up with Butterflies
The years in Desio marked his maturation as an athlete and as a person. «Precisely in the early years he understood the importance of the Team even moreof a common goal and collective work”, explained Maurelli. Enlisting in the Air Force, the captain’s armband, the medals and even defeats contributed to forging his character.
Alessia Maurelli and Emanuela Maccarani: lights and shadows
But it certainly had a fundamental role in all of this Emanuela Maccarani, to whom Maurelli dedicated significant words: «That girl became a Woman, thanks to the most incredible Person she had ever met, Manu». An intense relationship which, as often happens in high-level sport, also went through moments of great complexity.
Especially when the athlete’s name emerged in the wiretaps of the investigation by the Monza Prosecutor’s Office into the alleged abuses in rhythm, which involved the director Emanuela Maccarani and her assistant Olga Tishina. The investigations would have revealed the pressure suffered by the athletein particular regarding maintaining a healthy weight, with Maurelli speaking in an interception of a “sick environment” and the intention to “stop ruining me in this way”.
A growth path beyond sport
Regardless of the moments experienced, her teammates have become a second family for Maurelliwith whom he shared “from the hotel room to the darkest periods, from laughter to tears to holidays”.
An announced retirement
The retirement announcement does not come entirely unexpectedly: already after the bronze in Paris, Maurelli had hinted that his career was coming to an end. A moment also sweetened by the marriage proposal received from her boyfriend. «Thank you, to those who were part of my journey…» concluded Maurelli on the stage in Ferrara. Words that close an important chapter of Italian rhythmic gymnastics, but which open the doors to a new beginning for one of the most representative athletes in the discipline.
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