Susanna Marchesi's farewell

Nobody went so high. Twenty-one years; almost a half spent in the gym. From Toscana, from Arezzo, where there is the society Petrarca and where Susanna started: it's been a second house, together with the technical Centre in Follonica.

Dear Sir President,

After long and suffered reflection and various changes of mind, I decided to stop my agonistic activity.

Not having guarantees for a congenial training that could make me sure of not going back on results, I'd rather retire holding the Italian title, an honourable result at Olympic Games and an excellent placement at Worlds in Osaka. I'm proud of having reached the top of rhythmic gymnastics with results that no Italian gymnast reached before.

The gym has been my daily environment since I was 8, and I spent the last 5 years intensely only in the RSG world.

In spite of sacrifices, moments of confusion, the distance from familiar affection, I'll remember forever and with nostalgy my agonistic life.

Gymnastics gave me so much and I totally answered it, I rejoyced at important results and, at the beginning, unexpected ones, I learned to react disappointmens and situations that seemed incomprehenisble to me.

All this, I think, helped me growing and appreciating the necessary values for facing life with serenity and firmness.

I fell my duty thanking the Federation of Gymnastics that followed me in these years and believed in me, my society and my coaches, that had hand in my successes, Manola Rosi and Olga Bujanova.

I'll keep an important and enduring memory of them and all the people that I felt near and friends.

My enthusiasm and my experience will be necessary because I think I'll collaborate as a coach with my society and transmit love for gymnastics to all the little girls starting this fashinating way.

I thank You for the receptiveness and comprehension You showed me and I hope I'll meet You again in the new way I'm starting.

Yours sincerely,

Susanna Marchesi