Ale, Agiurgiu, Alex (Il Messaggero Veneto, 26 Sep 2018; Twitter profile, 23 Mar 2020)

Listening to music, playing football. (Il Messaggero Veneto, 26 Sep 2018)

Armed Forces Athlete, Student

International Relations, Political Science

English, Italian, Romanian

Desio [ITA] / CS Aeronautica Militare [ITA]

Julieta Cantaluppi [national], ITA; Elena Aliprandi [national], ITA

2017 for Italy (Il Messaggero Veneto, 26 Sep 2018)

In 2018 she sustained a knee injury that interrupted her training. (gymnastics.sport, 13 Sep 2018)

2017 (Il Messaggero Veneto, 26 Sep 2018)

She took up the sport at age six. (huffingtonpost.it, 24 Jul 2017)

"When I was six years old, I went to a doctor for a problem with my spine and I was encouraged to practise a sport to correct it. My mother enrolled me in a rhythmic gymnastics course, and from the first day I fell in love with the discipline." (huffingtonpost.it, 24 Jul 2017)

In 2019 she became the first Italian gymnast to win the World Challenge Cup Series. (gymnastics.sport, 08 Dec 2020)

She trains up to eight hours a day, six days a week. (gazzetta.it, 26 May 2021; rivistaundici.com, 09 Jan 2021)

Competing at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, and winning bronze in the team all-around competition at the 2018 World Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. (Instagram profile, 08 Aug 2021; gazzetta.it, 26 May 2021; gymnastics.sport, 13 Sep 2018)

Coach Spela Dragas. (Il Messaggero Veneto, 26 Sep 2018; gazzetta.it, 26 May 2021)

"Never give up." (Facebook profile, 27 Aug 2019)

She was named Il Campione dei Ragazzi [The Champion of the Boys] at the Italian Sportrait Awards for 2019. The award is given to the best Italian athlete of the year as voted for by children under the age of 16. (ilfriuli.it, 06 Mar 2020)

In 2019 she received the Danieli Silver Star award from Associazione Sportiva Udinese in Italy for her contribution to rhythmic gymnastics during the year. (ilfriuli.it, 14 Dec 2019)

She was presented with the Prize for Elegance at the 2017 World Championships in Pesaro, Italy. She was the first individual Italian rhythmic gymnast to receive the award. (fig-gymnastics.com, 02 Sep 2017)

General
FROM ROMANIA TO ITALY
She was involved in the Romanian national rhythmic gymnastics programme until age 10. Her family had moved to Italy while she remained in Romania with her grandparents, but she eventually also relocated to Italy and gained Italian citizenship in 2015. "My father moved to Italy when I was only three and my mother and my brothers went to Treviso, while I stayed with my grandparents in Romania. I did not know whether to stay with the Romanian national team or pack my bags. In the end, the desire to re-embrace my family was stronger than anything, so I came [to Italy]." (huffingtonpost.it, 24 Jul 2017; gazzetta.it, 07 May 2017)

NAMED ELEMENT
In early 2020 'The Agiurgiuculese', shortened to 'The Ag', was added to the Code of Points for rhythmic gymnastics by the International Gymnastics Federation [FIG]. The element, first performed by her at the 2019 World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, involves a turning split leap with ring of the back leg and take off and landing on the same leg [jete en tournant]. (gymnastics.sport, 06 Feb 2020)

INDIVIDUALIST
She says she prefers to compete in individual events rather than as a member of a team because she likes to correct her mistakes. "It happens that a competition can be lost because maybe I'm not focused. But I also had a peculiar capacity of motivating myself, to always ask me for something else. It's an almost furious reaction. I hate to train for so long and not being able to be the best, That's why I always want to depend on myself when I'm competing. And if I do a mistake, then I go home and train the triple." (revistaundici.com, 09 Jan 2021)