Igor Cassina (; born 15 August 1977) is an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

gymnast who won gold in the men's horizontal bar at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

Biography

At the

, his competition saw a crowd protest over a low score for a routine by

Alexei Nemov Alexei Yurievich Nemov (russian: link=no, Алексей Юрьевич Немов; born 28 May 1976 in Barashevo, Mordovia) is a former artistic gymnast from Russia. Nemov is most celebrated gymnasts of all time. During his career, he won fiv ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, which lasted for fifteen minutes until the score was raised. Despite this atmosphere, Cassina performed his exercise without major error, and he took the gold medal over

Paul Hamm Paul Elbert Hamm (born September 24, 1982 in Washburn, Wisconsin) is a retired United States, American artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast. He is the 2004 Olympic Games, 2004 Olympic all-around champion, a three-time Gymnastics at the Summer Ol ...

of the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, even though they tied. This gold was also the 500th Italian medal at the Summer Olympics. At the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

he was 4th in the man's horizontal bar. At the World Gymnastics Championships, he won the silver medal in Anaheim 2003 and the bronze in London 2009. At the European Gymnastics Championships, he won silver in Patras 2002 and Debrecen 2005 and bronze in Amsterdam 2007, always on the horizontal bar. Before winning the Olympic gold, Cassina had already made

gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shou ...

history as the first to perform a giant Kovacs straight with 1/1 turn (also known as a Kõlman in the straight position), which the

International Gymnastics Federation The International Gymnastics Federation (French: Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique, FIG) is the body governing all disciplines of competitive gymnastics. Its headquarters is in Lausanne, Switzerland. It was founded on July 23, 1881, in ...

named Cassina after him as of 2002.

References

External links

* * 1977 births Living people People from Seregno Italian male artistic gymnasts Olympic gymnasts of Italy Olympic gold medalists for Italy Gymnasts at the 2000 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 2004 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 2008 Summer Olympics Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships Olympic medalists in gymnastics Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore alumni Mediterranean Games silver medalists for Italy Competitors at the 2001 Mediterranean Games Mediterranean Games medalists in gymnastics Originators of elements in artistic gymnastics Sportspeople from the Province of Monza e Brianza {{Italy-Olympic-medalist-stub