Every routine is a story for rhythmic gymnastics champion Sofia Raffaeli

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, a 90-second rhythmic gymnastics routine is worth a novel. Or, in the case of five-time world champion Sofia Raffaeli, a super thrilling novel.

The Italian gymnast set her hoop routine to the main theme from Psycho, heard during the iconic shower murder scene from the 1960 horror film by Alfred Hitchcock.

It is an unusual choice in rhythmic gymnastics where classical music tends to dominate the playlist, but Raffaeli is not one to stick to tradition. Her other music choices are also unconventional, with storylines that showcase a full spectrum of human emotions.

"Especially this year, we worked a lot on expressiveness," Raffaeli told Olympics.com about the improvements she made to her routines since winning the individual all-around world titlein 2022. "Every exercise this year has its own story. It's really something emotional that gets to the heart of the spectators and that, I think, is the most beautiful thing about rhythmic gymnastics.

"It is crucial that when I take the floor, I am able to convey all the emotions that one can feel."

Raffaeli is performing these routines at the 2023 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships this week. She has already won silver medals in hoop and ball, as well as the love of spectators in Valencia, Spain.

"The Spanish public always cheers a lot. I can't wait to get on the floor," the 19-year-old said. "I hope to excite the people, the judges, because this year, with these routines, that's what I want to show."

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Raffaeli's hoop routine: Hypnotised by horror

There are no smiles in Raffaeli's Psycho hoop routine.

The gymnast's face is a tense mask as she performs complex rolls, throws and turns in a routine that almost becomes hypnotic with the clock running out. As the hoop swirls and swishes to the beats of an eerie soundtrack remeniscient of nails scraping on a chalkboard, the feeling of impeding doom is impossible to escape.

“I try to convey a little bit of terror, anguish, those feelings when a person at first doesn't realise what they've done and eventually come to repent it, but by that point, they can't control themselves anymore," Raffaeli said. "I like this because I can change emotions in a flash. When we picked it, it took us a long time to figure out how to interpret it. I like to perform it on the floor now because I know what people are feeling. I change moods frequently. It comes easy to me.”

An unusual choice, certainly, but also one that has helped Raffaeli to stand out among the world's best gymnasts in Valencia.

The commentators at the European Championships, which took place earlier this year, summarised it best: “It is such a horrible piece of music, and it worked so well.”

Ball: Broken heart in endless space

For her ball routine Raffaeli gave a tribute to her nation, performing to the world-renown Italian track "Il Mondo", which was released in 1965 and ruled the music charts for several weeks. To this day, it remains one of Jimmy Fontana's most popular songs and is loved well beyond the borders of Italy, including in 2023 worlds hosts Spain where the translated version has also reached the top of the charts.

Raffaeli opted for a more modern version to stage her ball routine, the one Jacopo Rossetto sang during his audition for X Factor Italia last year.

Slow and pensive, Raffaeli's routine portrays a heartbroken lover with the world turning about him, much like the silver ball that the gymnast rotates around her body.

“The ball is very emotional," Raffaeli said. "The music of 'Il Mondo' has now become like a trademark. Everyone stops me and says, 'Il Mondo!'. They even remember the word. It has become international. It is a kind of love story. It gives that sense of happiness but also a little bit of anguish, of sorrow.”

Clubs: A battle with cancer

Raffaeli intensifies the emotions even more with her clubs routine in which she portrays a cancer patient trying to fight off the deadly disease.

"The clubs, unfortunately, are about an illness, the one that we often hear about nowadays, which is cancer. This was also a very difficult challenge, being able to interpret it took a lot from me," Raffaeli said. "I know people who unfortunately suffer from it and you have a responsibility, you have to be able to show it to the fullest because otherwise you don't give a value to everything you actually want to convey.

"When I can do the clubs the way they were meant to be, with music and expressiveness, it gives me a great sense of pride."

The routine is set to "Quand C'est", a 2013 song by Belgian artist Stromae. In the song Stromae directly addresses the illness, as if a living being, with the words: “We know each other well, you even tried to get my mother, starting with her breasts and my father’s lungs”…. “Cancer, cancer, just tell me when, cancer, cancer, who’s the next one?”

Raffaeli drew inspiration from the artist, wearing a leotard with black, spider-like hands drawn on, similar to Stromae's shadow play-styled music video. She also echoed his movements from the video, replicating the gesture of drawing out air from the lungs and filling the routine with moves that suggest a body breaking down from within, but continuing to fight.

Ribbon: Smiling with Sinatra

A sombre mood prevails when watching Raffaeli’s hoop, ball and clubs routines. But, as can be expected given Raffaeli's vast range of expressiveness, not all of her routines have an element of tragedy in them.

Whatever joy she holds back in those routines, she makes up for in the ribbon – a joyous fest where a smile never leaves her face. At times, she even sings along as Frank Sinatra lists off his alter egos - "a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king" - a line-up that is arguably as diverse as the characters the Italian gymnast shows on the floor.

“It is one of the lightest musics," Raffaeli said of choosing 'That's Life' for her ribbon routine. "I want to try to have fun and engage the whole Spanish audience.”

There is perhaps no better musical testament to the ups and downs of an athlete's life. As Sinatra croons, “each time I find myself flat on my face, I pick myself up and get back in the race”, Raffaeli throws up her scarlett ribbon, lowers to ground level through a series of flips and catches it with triumph.

"That's life," she seems to say with her final pose to loving applause from the spectators.