Igor Cassina started out as a gymnast at age five, and won his first Italian title while still a junior, in 1994. He did so on his specialty apparatus, the horizontal bar. In 2001, he introduced a new element, a Kovács with an additional full twist, which was recognized as the “Cassina” a year later. This new element helped Cassina to reach the world top. He won a silver medal at the 2003 World Championships and 2003 European Championships, and improved to win the gold in Athens. Since then, he has won two more World Championship medals (silver and bronze), and narrowly missed out on a second Olympic medal in Beijing.
Italy