Alexandra Ana Maria Agiurgiuculese (born 15 January 2001) is a Romanian-Italian individual rhythmic gymnast who represents Italy. She is a World Championships silver and bronze medalist, and she competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Agiurgiuculese was the first Italian gymnast to win the Longines Prize for Elegance. At the national level, she is the 2019 Italian National all-around champion and three-time (2017, 2018, 2020) Italian National all-around silver medalist.
Personal life
Agiurgiuculese was born in Iași, Romania. She has a brother, Sebastian Constantin, and a sister, Madalina. Her mother is Romanian, while her father is of half-Italian, half-Slovene descent.[citation needed] Her father worked at a factory in Italy and sent money to the family in Romania, and her mother and brothers later joined him. She lived in Romania from ages 8 to 10 with her grandparents and trained with the Romanian National rhythmic gymnastics team.[2] She moved to Martignacco,[3] where she attended middle school and later lived first with her coach, Spela Dragas, in Udine for 4 years.[4] Agiurgiuculese speaks Romanian, Italian, and English.
She joined the Aeronautica Militare at 17 and is a first airman as of 2020.[5] She lived in Udine until she moved to Desio in late 2021.
Career
Junior
Representing Romania, Agiurgiuculese won the national competitions in Romania and competed in numerous international events, such as at the 2011 Irina Delanu Cup and 2010 Miss Valentine Cup.
In 2012, Agiurgiuculese began to represent Italy. She won the junior national championships in 2012, 2013 and 2015. At the 2014 MTM Ljubljana, she won gold in ball and silver in hoop, clubs, and ribbon. She also competed at the Italian Serie A. She competed at the 2015 Moscow Junior Grand Prix, finishing 8th in the all-around. She won the all-around gold at the 2015 MTM Cup in Ljubljana.
Agiurgiuculese competed at the 2016 Lisboa Junior World Cup. She won bronze in ball and finished 8th in rope, 7th in hoop, and 4th in clubs.[6] She won silver in rope and bronze in hoop and ball at the 2016 Pesaro Junior World Cup. At the 2016 Sofia Junior World Cup, Italy won the team bronze, and Agiurgiuculese took silver in ball and finished 4th in clubs.[7] At the 2016 European Junior Championships, Italy won team bronze, and Agiurgiuculese qualified to all apparatus finals. She won silver in ball and clubs and bronze in rope, and she finished 4th in hoop.[8]
Senior
In 2017 season, Agiurgiuculese made her senior international debut at the 2017 Grand Prix Moscow. She was 8th in the all-around, and she qualified to all the apparatus finals, placing 5th in clubs, 6th in hoop, 7th in ball and 8th in ribbon. She competed at the 2017 Pesaro World Cup and finished 13th all-around and qualified to two apparatus finals, where she won bronze with ribbon and placed 4th with ball. On 5–7 May Agiurgiuculese competed at the 2017 Sofia World Cup, finishing 13th in the all-around. She qualified for two apparatus finals, and she won a silver medal in ball and finished 8th in ribbon. On 19–21 May, Agiurgiuculese, along with teammates Milena Baldassarri and Alessia Russo, represented the individual seniors for Italy at the 2017 European Championships. She qualified for the ball final, but she finished in last place.
Agiurgiuculese won silver in the all-around at the Italian National Championships behind Veronica Bertolini. On 7–9 July Agiurgiuculese finished just out of the medals with 4th place in the all-around at the 2017 Berlin World Challenge Cup. She qualified for three apparatus final and took a silver medal in hoop and placed 5th in ball and 4th in ribbon. On 5–7 August Agiurgiuculese finished 7th in the all-around behind Bulgaria's Katrin Taseva at the 2017 Minsk World Challenge Cup and qualified for three apparatus finals. She won bronze in ball and finished 6th in hoop and 8th in clubs. On 11–13 August, Agiurgiuculese competed at the 2017 Kazan World Challenge Cup. She was 10th in the all-around and competed in three apparatus finals. In the apparatus finals, she finished 8th in hoop, 5th in ball, and 6th in clubs.
Together with Milena Baldassarri, Agiurgiuculese represented Italy in the individual competition at the 2017 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Pesaro, where she finished 8th In the All-around behind Neviana Vladinova. She also qualified for three apparatus finals and finished 7th in ball, 5th in clubs and 4th in ribbon. Agiurgiuculese was awarded the Longines Prize for Elegance at the games; she was the first Italian gymnast to win the award.[9]
In 2018, she started her season competing at the MTM Ljubljana tournament, where she finished 4th in the all-around behind Julia Evchik. On 13–15 April Agiurgiuculese competed at the 2018 Pesaro World Cup, finishing in a disappointing 17th position. On 27–29 April Agiurgiuculese then competed at the 2018 Baku World Cup, where she finished 16th in the all-around. On 4–6 May she competed at the 2018 Guadalajara World Challenge Cup. She finished 8th in the all-around. In her two apparatus finals, she was 5th in clubs and 8th in ribbon. On 15–17 May Agiurgiuculese competed at the Holon Senior International tournament, where she won gold in the all-around with a total of 66.300 points. On 29–30 June she competed at the 2018 Mediterranean Games in Tarragona, Spain, where she won the gold all-around medal with a total of 71.150 points.
At the 2018 World Championships, Alexandra won a historic bronze medal in the ball final with a score of 19.900. Her bronze medal was the first individual medal for Italy in 27 years at the World Championships.[10]
In 2019, Agiurgiuculese represented Italy at the 2019 World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan together with Milena Baldassarri, Alessia Russo and Sofia Maffeis. Italy placed 4th in the team competition. Agiurgiuculese placed 7th in the all-around qualifications and qualified to the hoop and clubs finals. In the all-around final, she ended in 6th place and secured an Olympic spot for Italy at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. She also placed 6th in the hoop final and 5th in the clubs final. During her ball exercise at the 2019 World Championships, she performed an original body difficulty element, a turning leap which was named "The Agiurguiculese" after her.[11]
In 2021, she started her season by competing at the FIG Ritam Cup in Belgrade, Serbia, where she finished 1st in the all-around. On 7–9 May she then competed at the 2021 Baku World Cup, finishing 4th in the all-around. At the 2020 Olympic Games, she finished fifteenth in the qualification round for the individual all-around and did not advance to the final.[12]
In 2022, just after her birthday, it was confirmed that she left her coach Spela Dragas from ASU Udinese and moved to Desio.[13]
Agiurgiuculese was given a one-year ban in July 2023 due to missing three anti-doping test appointments; she claimed that she had forgotten to properly update her whereabouts for testing because she was fatigued from travel. The suspension meant that she could not participate in the 2024 Summer Olympics.[14]
Eponymous skill
Agiurgiuculese has one eponymous skill listed in the code of points, a turning leap in a split position with ring (back leg bent with head bent toward foot), with the take-off and landing on the same leg.[15] She is the first Italian rhythmic gymnast to have an eponymous skill.[16]
First to perform the original body difficulty element, a turning split leap with ring of the back leg and take off and landing on the same leg, named "The Agiurguiculese" or "The Ag."[11]
Routine music information
Year
Apparatus
Music title
2016
Clubs
Batucada / Besame Mucho (Dub Mix) by The Booty Jocks / Buddha Bar
Q = Qualifications (Did not advance to Event Final due to the 2 gymnast per country rule, only Top 8 highest score); WR = World Record;WD = Withdrew;NT = No Team Competition; OC = Out of Competition(competed but scores not counted for qualifications/results)
