Sofia Raffaeli

Sofia Raffaeli (born 19 January 2004) is an Italian individual rhythmic gymnast.

She is the 2022 World all-around, hoop, ball, ribbon and team champion, the 2023 European ball and clubs champion and silver all-around medalist, and the 2022 European hoop and clubs champion.

She finished 10th in the all-around behind Sabina Tashkenbaeva and qualified to two apparatus finals, where she won a silver medal with clubs and a bronze medal with ribbon.

On 16–18 April Raffaeli competed at the 2021 Tashkent World Cup where she finished 4th in the all-around behind Anastasiia Salos, and qualified to three apparatus finals, winning a silver medal with hoop and ribbon, and also placing 4th in clubs.

In May, Raffaeli participated at the 2021 Pesaro World Cup where she placed 8th in the all-round behind Laura Zeng and qualified to 2 apparatus finals, placing 6th in clubs and 5th in ribbon.

In June, she won the silver medal in the all-around final at the 2021 Italian National Championships only behind Milena Baldassarri and in front of Alexandra Agiurgiuculese.

She represented Italy at the 2018 Junior European Championships in Guadalajara, Spain, where she qualified to the clubs final and she finished in 5th place.

She is also the 2019 Junior World silver medalist with rope and clubs.

She is the first Italian individual rhythmic gymnast to win a gold medal at the World Championships, European Championships and World Games, and she has won seven all-around gold medals in the FIG World Cup circuit.

At the national level, she is the 2022 and 2023 Italian National all-around champion, 2021 Italian National all-around silver medalist, and 2020 Italian National all-around bronze medalist.

As of 2023, she is the most decorated individual rhythmic gymnast from the Italian Gymnastics Federation.

Raffaeli was born in Chiaravalle, Marche; Italy.

Her mother, Milena Martarelli, is an engineer at the University of Ancona, while her father, Gianni Raffaeli, is an architect.

She has a younger brother, Pietro Raffaeli, who is a fencer.

Raffaeli got involved in artistic gymnastics at the age of three, and she switched to rhythmic gymnastics four years later.

In 2021, she joined the Sports Group of the Fiamme Oro.

At Gazzetta Sports Awards 2023 (Oscars of Sports), Raffaeli was named as the Best Female Athlete of the year alongside the Olympic, World and continental higher jumper champion Gianmarco Tamberi, who was the best male of the year.

This made her the first ever Italian rhythmic gymnast to win this award.

In 2019, she competed at the 2019 Junior World Championships in Moscow, Russia.

She won three silver medals - team, rope and clubs.

She also placed 8th in ball and 7th in ribbon.

In 2020, Raffaeli officially made her senior debut at the 2020 Italian National Championships, where she won the bronze medal in the all-around behind Milena Baldassarri and Alexandra Agiurgiuculese.

She also won a gold medal with clubs and a silver medal with ball.

In the 2021 Season, Raffaeli made her senior international debut at the 2021 FIG Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup series.

This championship decided the two gymnasts who were going to represent Italy at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Despite the fact that Raffaeli came second, the national coach, Emanuela Maccarani, decided that the gymnast accompanying Baldassarri should be Agiurgiuculese due to her experience throughout the Olympic cycle.

Raffaeli also managed to enter all four apparatus finals, winning gold in clubs, silver in hoop, and bronze in ball and ribbon.

Raffaeli was then selected to compete at the 2021 Rhythmic Gymnastics European Championships in Varna, Bulgaria, along with Alexandra Agiurgiuculese.

She qualified to the individual all-round final and the clubs final; she finished both finals in 8th place.

At the 2021 Marbella Grand Prix Final, Raffaeli placed 4th all-around behind Anastasia Simakova, and she also placed 1st in clubs, 3rd in ball and ribbon, and 7th in hoop.

She was selected to represent Italy at the 2021 World Championships in Kitakyushu, Japan.

At her senior world championships debut, she won a bronze medal in the hoop final.

Raffaeli also made it into the individual all-around final, finishing in 6th place behind Viktoriia Onopriienko. She additionally won a silver medal in the team competition, together with Milena Baldassarri, Alexandra Agiurgiuculese, and the Italian group.

In the 2022 season, Raffaeli adapted to the new FIG code of points and became the top gymnast of the Italian national team.

Raffaeli competed at the 2022 World Cup Athens and won the gold medal in the all-around, in front of Daria Atamanov, becoming the first Italian individual rhythmic gymnast to win a gold medal in the all-around event of a FIG World Cup stage.

She also qualified to three apparatus finals, winning two gold medals with ball and clubs, and a silver medal with hoop.

On 8–10 April Raffaeli competed at the 2022 World Cup Sofia where she finished second in the all-around behind Boryana Kaleyn.

She also won 3 silver medals with hoop, ball, clubs and she placed 6th in ribbon.

On 22–24 April Raffaeli competed at the 2022 World Cup Baku where she won the second all-around title of her career ahead of Boryana Kaleyn and teammate Milena Baldassarri.

She also won a gold medal with hoop and two bronze medals with ball and clubs, and she placed 5th in ribbon.