Four-time Olympic gymnast Vanessa Ferrari announces retirement
The 33-year-old was the first Italian woman to win an individual medal in the sport
Artistic Gymnastics
Vanessa Ferrari’s historic artistic gymnastics career has come to a close.
The 33-year-old, who represented Italy in four Olympic Games (Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016, and Tokyo 2020), told her hometown newspaper, Bresciaoggi, “The time has come to say enough.”
Ferrari won the world all-around title in her senior debut at the 2006 World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark. She owns four other world medals: silver on floor in 2013, and bronze medals on the uneven bars and floor exercise from 2006, as well as in the all-around in 2007.
At the Olympic Games, Ferrari made history for her nation at Tokyo 2020, held in the summer of 2021, when she grabbed silver on the floor exercise – the first individual medal for an Italian woman in artistic gymnastics.
Her hopes of a fifth Olympic appearance ended in late June when a calf injury sidelined her with less than a month until the Paris 2024 Games were set to open.
“I had already decided before Paris: those Olympics would have been the last act of my competitive career,” Ferrari said. “I wanted it to be the end of my career. I’m sorry it wasn’t like that.”