Athlete: Anna Thurner aka Ella (Austria)

“The best moment in my life was when I started breaking. At that moment I didn’t know it, but if I think back I can see that it changed me as a person, my life and my mindset a lot”, says the 16-year-old Austrian who will compete for her homeland at the Buenos Aires 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games in two weeks.

For Anna Thurner everything began in the year 2013 - back then Anna, a mere eleven years old and inspired by her younger brother, started taking breaking classes from Vasi Iancu aka El Vasi.

Trainings, workshops, diverse hip hop events, battles as well as the willingness to learn new things raised Anna’s skills and her knowledge. She owes her greatest influence in dance not only to her brother, b-boy Alias, and her crew `Funky Monkez´ but also to b-girl Narumi.
As b-girl Ella and student of Vasi Iancu and Sina Müller she participated together with her crew in the Battle of the Year Central Europe in 2017 where the team took the second place.

The participation in the Olympic Games brings Ella a lot of excitement and a lot of training. In the online-video-qualification she reached the fourth place in the national ranking. In the Continental Qualifier in Essen and the World Championship in Kawasaki Ella profited not only from her athletic skills but also from the YOG regulations which determine that per continent at least one b-girl must progress, however, per country only one b-girl can make it into the next round. Thus Ella could remove some competitors from Japan, Russia and France and secure with the fourteenth place in Kawasaki her qualification for Olympia.

The greatest strength of the dancer with the striking curls is freestyling. Furthermore Ella shines with her attitude, her energy and her confident and charismatic smile.