Asia D'Amato () (born 7 February 2003) is an Italian artistic gymnast. She represented Italy at the

2020 Olympic Games The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

. She was a member of the teams that won bronze at the 2019 World Championships and gold at the

2022 European Championships The 2022 European Championships were the second edition of the European Championships. It was a multi-sport event which took place in Munich, Germany from 11 to 21 August 2022. The tournament began three days after the conclusion of the 2022 Commo ...

. Individually she is the 2021 World vault silver medalist, the 2022 European all-around champion and vault silver medalist, the 2019 and 2020 Italian national champion, and the 2018 Junior European vault champion. She is a member of the

Italian National Team The Italy national football team ( it, Nazionale di calcio dell'Italia) has represented Italy in international football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing bo ...

and is the twin sister of

Alice D'Amato Alice D'Amato () (born 7 February 2003) is an Italian artistic gymnast. She represented Italy at the 2020 Olympic Games. She was a member of the teams that won bronze at the 2019 World Championships and gold at the 2022 European Championships ...

Early life

D'Amato and her twin sister,

Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...

, were born in

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

, Italy on 7 February 2003. She and her sister began gymnastics at the age of 7 at the Andrea Doria Sports Club in Genoa, Italy. They currently train at the International Academy of Brixia in

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...

. In December 2020, Alice and Asia received the Athlete of the Year award in the Liguria region of Italy.

Gymnastics career

Junior

2015 - 2017

D'Amato made her international debut at the 2015

City of Jesolo Trophy The City of Jesolo Trophy is an annual women's gymnastics competition held in Jesolo, Italy. There are competitions for the senior division and junior division. The United States won the senior team competition every year from 2010 to 2017.

as part of Italy's Young Dreams team alongside

Giorgia Villa Giorgia Villa (born 23 February 2003) is an Italian artistic gymnast. She was a member of the historic team that won bronze at the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart, and was part of the gold-winning team at both the 2022 Mediterranean Games ...

. In 2017 D'Amato competed at the Italian National Championships where she placed first on vault, second on floor exercise, and third on uneven bars. She later competed at the 2017 European Youth Olympic Festival alongside

Elisa Iorio Elisa Iorio (born 21 March 2003) is an Italian artistic gymnast and was a member of the team who won the bronze medal at the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart. Iorio also won gold at the 2018 European Junior Championships where she addition ...

and

. There she helped Italy win silver behind Russia. Individually she placed second in the all-around behind

Ksenia Klimenko Ksenia Anatolyevna Klimenko (russian: Ксения Анатольевна Клименко, born 1 November 2003) is a retired Russian artistic gymnast. She is the 2018 Youth Olympics Uneven Bar Champion, the 2017 European Youth Summer Olympic ...

of Russia, third on vault behind

Valeria Saifulina Valeria may refer to: People * Valeria (given name), a female given name * The gens Valeria, a family at Rome * Valeria (ancient Roman women), a name used in ancient Rome for women of the gens Valeria * Saint Valeria (disambiguation), several s ...

of Russia and

Denisa Golgotă Denisa Golgotă (born 8 March 2002) is a retired Romanian artistic gymnast. She won two medals at the 2018 European Championships – a silver on floor exercise and a bronze on vault. Personal life Denisa Golgotă was born on 8 March 2002 in Al ...

of Romania, third on uneven bars behind Iorio and Klimenko, and second on balance beam behind Klimenko.

2018

D'Amato competed at the

in April where Italy placed first in the team competition. She continued her national and international dominance on vault, winning gold at International Gymnix, all Italian Serie A competitions, and at the Youth Olympic Games Qualifier. In August D'Amato competed at the

2018 European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 32nd European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held from 2 to 5 August 2018 at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. Competition schedule Medal summary Medalists Medal table Combined Seniors ...

alongside

Alessia Federici Alessia is an Italian given name, the feminine form of the male given name Alessio, the Italian form of Alexius. It is a popular name for females in Italy and was the second most popular name for Italian girls born in 2006. The name may mean ...

, and

where Italy won team gold and individually D'Amato won gold on vault.

Senior

2019

In April D'Amato was officially named to the team to compete at the 2019 European Championships alongside

and

. During qualifications she placed eleventh in the all-around but did not qualify to the final due to

and

scoring higher. She qualified to the vault final in fourth place. During finals she once again finished in fourth, behind

Maria Paseka Maria Valeryevna Paseka (russian: Мария Валерьевна Пасека; born 19 July 1995) is a Russian artistic gymnast and member of the Russia women's national gymnastics team. During her decade-long career, she has primarily been succ ...

of Russia,

Coline Devillard Coline Devillard (born 9 October 2000) is a French artistic gymnast. Devillard is the 2022 World bronze medalist, the 2017 and 2023 European champion, and the 2019 European silver medalist on vault. She was the first French female gymnast to w ...

of France, and

Ellie Downie Elissa Rebecca "Ellie" Downie (born 20 July 1999) is a retired artistic gymnast who has represented Great Britain. She is the all-around 2017 European gymnastics champion, the first gymnast to win a major all-around title for Great Britain. T ...

of Great Britain. In August D'Amato competed at the

Heerenveen Heerenveen (, fry, It Hearrenfean ) is a town and municipality in the province of Friesland (Fryslân), in the Northern Netherlands. In 2021, the town had a population of 29,790 (1 January) while the municipality had a population 50,859 (1 July). ...

Friendly where she helped Italy win gold in the team competition ahead of the Netherlands and Norway and individually she finished fifth in the all-around behind

Eythora Thorsdottir Eythora Elisabet Thorsdottir ( is, Eyþóra Elísabet Þórsdóttir; born 10 August 1998) is a Dutch gymnast born to Icelandic parents. She competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics, where she finished ninth in the individual all-around, the highest ...

Naomi Visser Naomi Visser (born 24 August 2001) is a Dutch artistic gymnast. She was part of the bronze medal winning teams at the 2018 and 2023 European Championships. Early life Visser was born in 2001 in Papendrecht. She started gymnastics at the age ...

, and

. Additionally she recorded the third highest vault and balance beam scores. On September 4 D'Amato was named to the team to compete at the 2019 World Championships in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

alongside her sister, Villa,

, and Desirée Carofiglio. During

qualifications Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

at the World Championships D'Amato helped Italy qualify to the team final in eighth place; as a result Italy also qualified to the

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. She scored high enough to become the second reserve for the all-around final but did not due to teammates Villa and Iorio scoring higher than her. In the team final, D'Amato helped Italy win the bronze medal – Italy's first team medal since the

1950 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 12th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships were held in Basel, the second largest city of Switzerland, on July 14-16, 1950. 20,000 spectators watched the championships, held for the first time in Switzerland, and the Swiss team was very su ...

. They ended up finishing behind the United States and Russia but ahead of China, who originally qualified to the final in second place.

2020

In late January it was announced that D'Amato would compete at the Stuttgart World Cup taking place in March. The Stuttgart World Cup was later canceled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Germany The COVID-19 pandemic in Germany has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. On 27 January 2020, the first case in Germany was confirmed near Munich, Bavaria. By mid February, the arising cluster of cases had been fully containe ...

. In November D'Amato competed at the Italian National Championships where she tied for first with

. During event finals she won gold on vault, bronze on the uneven bars (behind Villa and

Martina Maggio Martina Maggio (born July 26, 2001) is an Italian artistic gymnast. She represented Italy at the 2020 Olympic Games. She was a member of the gold medal winning teams at the 2022 Mediterranean Games and the 2022 European Championships. She was ...

) and on balance beam (behind Maggio and Villa), and silver on floor exercise once again behind Villa.

2021

D'Amato was named to the team to represent

Italy at the 2020 Summer Olympics Italy competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Italian athletes have appeared in every ...

alongside

(later replaced by

Vanessa Ferrari Vanessa Ferrari (born 10 November 1990) is an Italian Artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast. She was the 2006 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, 2006 World All-Around Champion and competed for Italy at the 2008 Summer Olympics, 2008, 2012 Su ...

), and

. The team qualified for the team finals and placed fourth with a total score of 163.638. In October D'Amato was selected to compete at the

2021 World Championships 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...

. While there she qualified to the all-around and vault finals, becoming the first Italian female gymnast to qualify to the latter. During the vault final she performed a Yurchenko double and a half on full twist. She won the silver medal behind reigning Olympic vault champion

Rebeca Andrade Rebeca Rodrigues de Andrade (born 8 May 1999) is a Brazilian artistic gymnast. She is the 2020 Olympic and 2021 World champion on the vault and 2022 World all-around champion. Andrade is the first Brazilian female gymnast to medal at an Olymp ...

. This was Italy's first World medal on vault in women's artistic gymnastics.

2022

D'Amato competed at the DTB Pokal Team Challenge. Her scores on vault, uneven bars, and balance beam contributed towards Italy's second-place finish. Individually D'Amato won silver on vault. D'Amato next competed at the

. She helped Italy finish second as a team and individually placed second in the all-around behind

Konnor McClain Konnor McClain (born February 1, 2005) is an American Artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast and a member of the United States women's national gymnastics team. She is the 2022 U.S. National Gymnastics Championships, 2022 U.S National Champion an ...

. During event finals she finished second on vault behind

, fifth on balance beam, and sixth on uneven bars. In June D'Amato competed at the

Mediterranean Games The Mediterranean Games is a multi-sport event organised by the International Committee of Mediterranean Games (CIJM). It is held every four years among athletes from countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea in Africa, Asia and Europe. The fir ...

alongside

Angela Andreoli Angela Andreoli (born 6 June 2006) is an Italian artistic gymnast. She was a member of the gold medal-winning teams at the 2022 Mediterranean Games and the 2022 European Championships. Individually she is the 2022 Mediterranean Games bronze med ...

, and

. Together they won gold in the team competition, over five points ahead of second place France. Individually D'Amato won silver in the all-around and on balance beam behind compatriot Maggio and won gold on vault and floor exercise. D'Amato next competed at the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

. On the first day of competition she won gold in the all-around ahead of

Alice Kinsella Alice Nicole Kinsella (born 13 March 2001) is an Irish-English artistic gymnast and member of the British national gymnastics team. She represented Great Britain at the 2020 Summer Olympics and won a bronze medal in the team event, and was par ...

of Great Britain and compatriot Maggio. She is the second Italian woman to win the all-around title after

did so in

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

. Additionally D'Amato helped Italy qualify to the team final in first place and individually she qualified to the vault and balance beam finals. During the team final D'Amato contributed scores on all four apparatuses towards Italy's first place finish. During event finals D'Amato won silver on vault behind Zsófia Kovács. D'Amato injured her ankle when landing her second vault and therefore withdrew from the balance beam final. An

MRI Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio waves ...

later revealed that D'Amato would need to undergo surgery to repair ankle ligaments and she would be unable to compete at the upcoming

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

2023

D'Amato returned to competition at the

where she helped Italy finish second as a team. Additionally she finished second on vault behind

. D'Amato next competed at the Cairo World Cup. She qualified to the vault and balance beam finals. During the vault final D'Amato won silver behind

Joscelyn Roberson Joscelyn Michelle Roberson (born February 8, 2006) is an American artistic gymnast and member of the USA national gymnastics team. She was a member of the gold medal winning team at the 2023 World Championships. Early life Roberson was bor ...

but injured her knee when landing her second vault. As a result she withdrew from the balance beam final. An MRI later revealed that D'Amato tore her ACL and

meniscus Meniscus may refer to: *Meniscus (anatomy), crescent-shaped fibrocartilaginous structure that partly divides a joint cavity *Meniscus (liquid) The meniscus (plural: ''menisci'', from the Greek for "crescent") is the curve in the upper surface ...

and would require surgery to repair them.

Competitive history

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:D'Amato, Asia 2003 births Living people Italian female artistic gymnasts Sportspeople from Genoa Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships European champions in gymnastics Italian twins Twin sportspeople Gymnasts at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic gymnasts for Italy Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Italy Mediterranean Games silver medalists for Italy Mediterranean Games medalists in gymnastics Gymnasts at the 2022 Mediterranean Games 21st-century Italian women