Miranda Cicognani

When she made her Olympic début in 1952, Miranda Cicognani was the youngest competitor in the sport of gymnastics and also the youngest member of the entire Italian Olympic team at that edition of the Games. At the tender age of 15 years and 10 months she was honoured by being the first female flagbearer in Italian Summer Olympic history, and only the second at any Summer Olympics, when she carried the Tricolore at the opening ceremony in Helsinki.

Cicognani was national all-around champion five times between 1956 and 1962 – her winning streak being broken in 1959 and 1961 by her younger sister Rosella Cicognani and Miranda became the first Italian female gymnast to compete at three Olympic Games. Her best individual performance came in Rome where she finished 9th in the uneven bars although she had five top 10 finishes as part of the Italian team. She also finished 12th in the all-around at the inaugural Women’s European Championships in 1957.

After retiring from active competition following the Roma Olympics, she coached the Italian team between 1963 and 1965 including the Tokyo Games. Cicognani then married and had two children but returned to the Olympic arena in 1976 as a judge. In Montréal she had a part in a memorable piece of Olympic history when she was one of the officials who, for the first time in history, awarded the perfect mark of 10.00 to Nadia Comaneci. After missing the Moscow Olympics, Cicognani served as a judge at each Games from`1984 to 2000 as well as at World and European Championships until her retirement.