Milena Baldassarri

Milena Baldassarri (born 16 October 2001 in Ravenna, Italy) is an Italian individual rhythmic gymnast. She won silver in the ribbon final at the 2018 Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships. She competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in the individual all-around.

Baldassarri was a bronze medalist at the 2016 European Junior Championships. On the national level, she is a three-time (2018, 2020, 2021) Italian National all-around champion, four-time (2019, 2022-2024) Italian National all-around silver medalist, 2017 Italian National all-around bronze medalist, and 2016 Italian Junior National all-around champion.

Personal life
Baldassarri's mother was a swimmer who competed internationally for the Soviet Union, and Baldassarri competed in swimming through age 7, at which point she tried other sports, including rhythmic gymnastics. She started practising rhythmic gymnastics in Ravenna. In addition to Italian, she speaks Russian. Baldassarri chose to pursue rhythmic gymnastics because she enjoyed the performance aspect, and she has chosen themes of social issues such as suicide, body shaming, and violence against women for some of her exercises.

Junior
In 2014 she moved to Fabriano and started being trained by the Olympian Julieta Cantaluppi and her mother, Bulgarian rhythmic gymnast Kristina Guiourova. In 2015 she was selected to be part of the Italian national junior group that competed at the 2015 Rhythmic Gymnastics European Championships in Minsk, Belarus. They placed 6th in the group all-around and 5th in the 5 balls final. At the 2016 European Championships, Baldassarri won the junior team bronze with Alexandra Agiurgiuculese.

Senior
In 2017, Baldassarri made her senior international debut at the international tournament Città Pesaro, where she won the bronze medal in the all-around and silver in the ribbon final. She also won gold in the clubs final ahead of Russian Ekaterina Selezneva. In May she competed at 2017 Sofia World Cup, her first world cup, where she took the 10th place in the all-around. On 19–21 May, Baldassarri, along with her teammates Alexandra Agiurgiuculese and Alessia Russo, represented the individual seniors for Italy at the 2017 European Championships, where she qualified for the ribbon final. She finished in 7th place.

On 5–7 August Baldassarri finished 8th in the all-around at the 2017 Minsk World Challenge Cup. She qualified for two apparatus finals and finished 7th in ribbon and 4th in ball. Her ball score was tied with third place (16.650), but the tie was 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 place. She was awarded with the Alina Kabaeva Prize.

2018
In 2018, on 30 March - 1 April, Baldassarri began her series of World Cup events by competing at the 2018 Sofia World Cup. There she was 12th in the all-around, and she qualified for the hoop final, where she finished 5th. On 13–15 April Baldassarri competed at the 2018 Pesaro World Cup, finishing 9th in the all-around. She also qualified for the ribbon final. On 27–29 April she then competed in the event at the 2018 Baku World Cup, where she finished 8th in the all-around behind Japan's Kaho Minagawa and qualified for one event final. On 4–6 May she competed at the 2018 Guadalajara World Challenge Cup and had a new highest all-around placement when she finished fourth in the all-around behind Russia's Arina Averina.Baldassarri had an overall successful event, qualifying for all four apparatus finals and winning her first World Cup medals. She won silver in ball behind Linoy Ashram, and she also won a bronze in clubs. In both the ribbon and hoop finals, she finished 5th.

On 16–17 May Baldassarri competed at the 2018 Holon Grand Prix, finishing 7th in the all-around behind Salome Pazhava. She qualified for two apparatus finals, where she won her first Grand Prix gold medal in ribbon. She also won bronze in ball.

Baldassarri once again represented Italy with Alexandra Agiurgiuculese at the 2018 Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships in Sofia. She won the silver medal in the ribbon apparatus final, becoming the first individual Italian gymnast to ever win an apparatus silver medal in the World Championship. Baldassarri said the medal came as a surprise and that she regarded it as "the reward for all the hard work, all the sacrifices we made during the months before".

2019
Baldassarri competed at the 2019 World Challenge Cup Minsk, where she won the bronze medal in the ribbon final. Next, she performed at the 2019 World Challenge Cup Portimao where she won the silver medal in the all-around competition. She also won a gold medal in the ball and ribbon final, and a silver medal in the clubs final. At the 2019 World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, Baldassarri represented Italy together with Alexandra Agiurgiuculese, Alessia Russo and Sofia Maffeis. The Italian gymnasts placed 4th in the team competition. Baldassarri placed 4th in the ball final and 8th in the ribbon final. In the all-around final, she finished in 7th place and secured Italy an Olympic spot for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

2021
In April, Mattel created a one-of-a-kind Barbie doll modeled on Baldassarri.

At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Baldassarri represented Italy along with Agiurgiuculese. Baldassarri qualified to the all-around final in 6th place, and she ended in the same placement during the final. She said she was very happy with her performance at the competition. Her placement was a record for Italian rhythmic gymnasts.

Baldassarri was selected to represent Italy at the 2021 World Championships in Kitakyushu, Japan. She won a silver medal in the team competition together with Sofia Raffaeli, Alexandra Agiurgiuculese, and the Italian group.

2022
In 2022, Baldassarri competed at the 2022 Sofia World Cup, where she won a bronze medal in the ball final. On 22-24 April, Baldassarri also competed at the 2022 World Cup Baku. She won the bronze medal in the all-around competition behind her teammate Sofia Raffaeli and Boryana Kaleyn from Bulgaria and won a silver medal with ball.

On 27-29 May Baldassarri competed at the 2022 Italian National Championships, where she won the silver medal in the all-around competition and four more silver medals in the apparatus finals. On 3-5 June Baldassarri competed at the 2022 World Cup Pesaro and won the silver medal in the all-around competition.

From 15 to 19 June Baldassarri competed at the 2022 European Championships in Tel Aviv, Israel. She won a silver medal in the team competition together with Sofia Raffaeli and the Italian group. In August, she performed at the 2022 World Challenge Cup Cluj-Napoca and won a bronze medal in the ball final. From 14 to 18 September, Baldassarri represented Italy at the World Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, where she won a bronze medal in the ball final and a gold medal in the team competition.

2023
On March 18, Baldassarri competed at the 2023 World Cup Athens and took 13th place in the all-around. Two weeks later, she competed at the next World Cup in Sofia, where she finished 12th all-around. She qualified for two apparatus finals and finished 8th in ribbon and 7th in ball. On April 22, Baldassarri competed at her third World Cup of the season in Baku, where she took 30th place in the all-around. From May 18-21, she competed at the 2023 European Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan with one apparatus, ribbon. She qualified for the ribbon final and finished in 5th place.

On 9-11 June Baldassarri competed at the 2023 Italian National Championships. There she won the silver medal in the all-around competition. In the apparatus finals, she won three more silver medals and a bronze medal. On July 14–16, Baldassarri competed at the 2023 World Challenge Cup Cluj-Napoca and won the silver medal in the ball final.

In August, she was selected for the World Championships in Valencia. In the qualification round, both she and fellow Italian Sofia Raffaeli placed high enough to each win a berth at the 2024 Summer Olympics for Italy. Baldassarri said they hoped to compete together at the Olympics. In the all-around final, she placed 13th.

2024
Baldassarri began her season by competing at the 2024 World Cup Athens, where she finished 23rd all-around. She qualified in the clubs final and took 8th place. On 12-14 April, she competed at the 2024 World Cup Sofia and placed 18th in the all-around.

From May 23-26, Baldassarri competed at the 2024 European Championships in Budapest, Hungary, where she was selected to represent Italy with three apparatuses in the qualifying round: ball, clubs and ribbon. In the all-around final, she placed 6th, and she qualified for the clubs final and finished 5th. She won a silver medal in the team competition together with Sofia Raffaeli and the Italian group.

On 8-9 June Baldassarri competed at the 2024 Italian National Championships. She won the silver medal in the all-around competition and went on to also win three bronze medals and another silver medal in the apparatus finals. At the Milano World Cup, she finished in 16th place in the all-around.

Achievements

 * First Italian individual rhythmic gymnast to win a silver medal at the World Championships.
 * First, and only, Italian individual rhythmic gymnast to place 6th in the All Around final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Competitive highlights
(Team competitions in seniors are held only at the World Championships, Europeans and other Continental Games.)