Athlete of the Week – Gymnast Amalia Lica
In a period with many good results obtained by athletes from Romania, the week’s performance was the silver medal Amalia Lică won in the Rhythmic World Gymnastics Championship in Rio
Florin Orban, 26.08.2025, 13:45
Last week was full of good results obtained by Romanian athletes. For instance, Daria Silisteanu won silver in the 100 meter backstroke race at the World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships in Otopeni, close to Bucharest. In the same competition, Robert Badea won bronze in the 400 meter mixed event.
In Cleveland, Ohio, Romanian tennis player Sorana Cîrstea won the third WTA tournament in her career. However, the most important performance was the silver medal Amalia Lica won at the Rhythmic World Gymnastics Championship in Rio, a performance which has also brought her the Athlete of the Week title awarded by our radio station.
Amalia came second in the clubs finals, where gold went to Olympic Champion Darja Varfolomeev of Germany, and Stiliana Nikolova of Bulgaria became the bronze medalist.
We recall that in the whole history of rhythmic gymnastics Romania obtained only one medal. It was in 1992 in Brussels, when Irina Deleanu, the incumbent chair of the Romanian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation became bronze medalist in the rope event.
Amalia Lică was born in Bucharest on May 11, 2009 and compelled international recognition in 2022 at the European Junior Championship in Tel Aviv, where she won silver in the team contest, jointly with Christina Dragan, and a historic gold in the clubs event, becoming Romania’s first European Champion in junior competitions.
In 2023 she made her debut in Italy’s Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship with the team Eurogymnica Torino. In 2024, at the European Championships for Juniors in Budapest she obtained four gold medals: in the team contest with Lisa Garac and in the individual events of hoop, clubs and ribbon. This year, at her first participation in a senior competition at the European Championships in Tallinn, she ranked 8th in the ribbon contest.
(bill)