Lorea Elso

María Flor Elso Torralba (born 8 June 1973), known as Lorea Elso, is a former Spanish rhythmic gymnast.

under the orders of Boneva herself and Ana Roncero, who since 1982 had been national group coach and head coach, and would live with all the members of the team in a house in La Moraleja.

In 1988, after this club disbanded, he joined the Anaitasuna Recreational Sports Cultural Society of the same city.

In 1988 she was called by Emilia Boneva to join the national rhythmic gymnastics team of Spain in the ensemble modality, of which she would become a part until 1992.

During that time she would train about 8 hours a day at the Moscardó Gymnasium in Madrid.

At the beginning of 1989s he won 3 silver medals in the DTB-Pokal Karlsruhe tournament.

Shortly after she, together with Beatriz Barral, Bito Fuster, Arancha Marty, Mari Carmen Moreno and Vanesa Muñiz, with Marta Aberturas and Nuria Arias as substitutes, won 3 bronze medals at the World Championships in Sarajevo, reaching the podium both in the All-Around and in the finals of 12 clubs and 3 ropes and 3 ribbons.

She was awarded the Sports Award of the Government of Navarra for the best Navarrese athlete of the year in 1989 and 1991.

After her retirement she obtained the title of National Trainer and graduate from the Complutense University in information sciences.

She works in the audiovisual sector, where she has worked in film production companies and exhibitors.

She currently works in Madrid at the film distributor Golem.

In 1990, the European Championships in Gotheburg took place, in which she won the bronze medal in both the All-Around and the event finals.

In the World Cup Final, held that year in Brussels, the group made of Lorea, Beatriz Barral, Bito Fuster, Montse Martín, Arancha Marty and Vanesa Muñiz, with Marta Aberturas and Gemma Royo being the substitutes, won all three bronze medals.

At the Wacoal Cup tournament in Tokyo, held in November, they won overall silver.

She was World champion in 1991 and two-time European champion in 1992.

The generation of gymnasts that she was part of is known by the pseudonym of the "Primeras Chicas de Oro".

Lorea is, along with Bito Fuster, Marta Baldó and Estela Giménez, the Spanish rhythmic gymnast with the most medals in World Championships, with a total of 8.

Lorea started rhythmic gymnastics when she was 9 years old, at the Ivanka Chakarova Club in Pamplona.

In 1991, Lorea was named captain of the national team.

In 1991, the two exercises of the group were 6 ribbon and the 3 balls and 3 ropes.

The first had "Tango Jalousie" as music, composed by Jacob Gade, while the multi apparatus one used the song "Campanas", by Víctor Bombi.

To choreograph the dance steps of the 6 ribbons exercise they had the help of Javier Castillo "Poty", then a dancer with the National Ballet, although the team's usual choreographer was the Bulgarian Georgi Neykov.

Before the World Championships, they won gold in the Karlsruhe tournament (ahead of the USSR and Bulgaria) and 3 bronzes in the Gymnastic Masters in Stuttgart.

On the 12 October 1991 the Isabel, Débora Alonso, Isabel Gómez Pérez, Bito Fuster, Montse Martín and Gemma Royo, with Marta Aberturas and Cristina Chapuli as substitutes, won gold in the All-Around at the World Championships in Athens.

This medal was described by the media as historic since it was the first time that Spain was proclaimed world champion in rhythmic gymnastics.

The next day, they would also win silver in the two apparatus finals.

After this achievement, at the end of 1991 they would tour Switzerland.

The national rhythmic gymnastics group of 1991 won the first world title for Spanish rhythmic gymnastics at the World Championships in Athens, achieving for the first time in this discipline a Western country prevailing over Eastern countries.

It would also be the first Spanish women's team in proclaim himself world champion in a media sport.

In 1992 they would win silver in the Karlsruhe tournament, and later they were invited to perform at the Corbeil-Essonnes one.

In June, with new exercises, they participated in the European Championships in Stuttgart, where they shared the gold medal in the All-Around, in addition to getting another gold in the 3 balls and 3 ropes final and bronze in 6 ribbons.

She would not compete in the 1992 Olympic Games because rhythmic gymnastics was an individual only sport at the olympics at that time, although she would participate with the rest of her teammates in the opening ceremony, leading the parade of participating nations.

Shortly after, they won gold in both the Asvo Cup in Austria and the Alfred Vogel Cup in the Netherland), where they also won silver in 6 ribbons and gold in 3 balls and 3 ropes. Gómez and Fuster got injured before the World Championships in Brussels, which took place in November 1992, they were replaced by Alicia Martín, Cristina Martínez and Bárbara Plaza into the starting team. In this competition the team won silver in the All-Around, being just one tenth away from being able to retain the world title they had achieved the previous year. In addition, on November 22 they got bronze with 6 ribbons and were 8th with 3 balls and 3 ropes. After this Lorea would retire from the competition, as would the rest of the starting sextet that had been world champion in Athens the previous year.

Reviews of this milestone appear in books such as Gimnasia rítmica deportiva: aspectos y evolución (1995) by Aurora Fernández del Valle, Enredando en la memoria (2015) by Paloma del Río or Pinceladas de rítmica (2017) by Montse and Manel Martín.

On 25 May 2017 she was the presenter at the presentation of the book "Pinceladas de rítmica" at the CSD headquarters, a journey through the history of rhythmic writing written by his former teammate Montse Martín and by Manel Martín.

On December 16, 2017, Elso met with other former gymnasts from the national team to pay tribute to former national team coach Ana Roncero.

In September 2018, she traveled with several former gymnasts from the Spanish team to the World Championships in Sofia to meet again with the former national team coach Emilia Boneva, and a tribute dinner was also organized in her honor.

After Boneva's death on 20 September 2019, Isabel and other former national gymnasts gathered to pay tribute to her during the Euskalgym held on 16 November 2019, the event took place before 8,500 attendees at the Bilbao Exhibition Center de Baracaldo and was followed by a dinner in her honor.