Alice and Asia D’Amato twins of artistic gymnastics – Corriere.it

When one competes, the other doesn’t look. And viceversa. “It’s our bad luck, she fell once and I made up my mind to bring her bad luck, so now… never again. A small ritual that we also respected in these Europeans». Where Asia, the blonde who speaks fluently, won silver on vault

(“Like at the last European Championships, but this time I still have two healthy feet and I was able to get on the podium, in Monaco after the jump I broke my ligaments and was out for seven and a half months, it wasn’t easy”), Alice, the almost identical blonde, gold on the parallel bars and bronze in the general competition (“Finally, it’s the confirmation that I’m working in the right way, I couldn’t be happier than that”), and together with silver with Italy in the team competition.

The D’Amato twins are a symbiotic mechanism, two hearts, two brains, four legs, four arms, a shared routine in every movement since, at the age of 11, they decided to leave Genoa for Brescia (“We didn’t have any gyms with the right equipment to pursue dreams we had to leave”), and when every Saturday morning after training they take the bus to go home: “And come back on Sunday evening: it’s a long journey, but we love to go back to where we were born”. An even stronger bond after his father Massimo passed away a year ago: «These medals are also for him», is the thought in unison.

Inseparable. Almost indistinguishable, apart from the hair elastic, an indication that it was not always sufficient to understand which of the two had made a mistake in the exercise in the early days at the Brixia Gymnastics by Enrico Casella, who is also the Italy coach. “It happened that he didn’t recognize us if we were upside down, or from behind, today obviously that’s not the case anymore”.

“Sometimes after a mistake they assigned each other the exercise ‘I’m Asia’, ‘No, I’m Alice’ – Casella cuddles them very happily -. I call them the awful twins. I’m very satisfied: Alice has proved to be the best parallel lifter in Europe and she can improve on the floor exercise, Asia has recovered and isn’t 100% yet, they will be Italy’s engine for a long time to come ».

The relationship between twin sisters has rounded the edges over the years. Asia: «Alice is too little outgoing, she keeps everything inside»; Alice: «Asia when she puts her mind to something …», and now the symbiosis is total. “Our relationship has grown and we with him. When we were little we were more grumpy with each other, we fought more, there was more rivalry, in the competitions we were against each other. Not now, we’ve shared everything for twenty years, so much so that if one day one were to leave for a race without the other, well… that would be trouble», explains Asia. Alice concludes: «Now if one wins, the other wins too, the more medals the family receives, the better».

As gymnasts, however, day and night. Asia: «Alice is very elegant, talented, beautiful to look at. She only believes little in herself, she has to convince herself that she can do great things ». Alice: «Asia is solid, much more powerful than me, strong in many ways». The idol, of course, common: «Simon Biles. His experience at the Games it gave us the opportunity to reflect on the importance of mental health and the volleyball player’s suicide greatly affected us. In high-level sport it is essential to have fun, otherwise you’ll go dead».

To do this, they use social media sparingly (“We each have our own profile, then the fans made a shared one, but we don’t waste too much time, real reports are better”), the most practiced entertainment is going out for a ice-cream. Together. Obviously the same tastes: «Pistachio, cream, grandmother’s biscuit».