Giorgia Villa missed the Tokyo Olympics because of a sprained ankle. At the Paris Games, despite lingering back injuries, the 21-year-old gymnast made history.
With their silver medal behind the Simone Biles-led U.S. team’s gold, Angela Andreoli, Alice D’Amato, Manila Esposito, Elisa Iorio and Villa matched Italy’s best result in Olympic gymnastics, a feat the country achieved in 1928.
It was Italy’s first medal in 96 years in the women’s team final, and Villa contributed to that with a score of 13.766 on uneven bars.
But it wasn’t that solid performance that made her a social media sensation. It’s her previous role as an ambassador for Parmigiano Reggiano cheese that has put her in the spotlight.
Immediately after the final on Tuesday, images of a 2021 advertising campaign showing Villa in a leotard next to a giant wheel of the hard, grainy cheese, one hand resting on a large chunk of it, began to circulate on social networks. It has not stopped.
“Olympic silver medalist Giorgia Villa sponsored by Parmigiano Reggiano: could it be more italian than this?” one user asked in a message accompanied with pictures of the gymnast tumbling over a wheel of cheese and doing a big split over four of them.
Sport Consultants Impresa e Sport said Villa, who also was part of the team that ended Italy’s 69-year medal wait in the women’s team event at the 2019 world championships by winning bronze, was named ambassador for the cheese in 2021.
“Since I was a child I’ve always loved this amazing product, a symbol of excellence and Italian culture,” Villa said when the sponsorship deal kicked off. According to Italian media, the deal ended in 2022.
Parmigiano Reggiano is no stranger to working with top Italian athletes including tennis player Jannik Sinner, former NBA player Nico Mannion, Paralympic swimmer Giulia Ghiretti and fencer Matteo Neri.
Villa, who started doing gymnastics when she was 3 years old, could not compete in the all-around because of her back problems.