Italian athletes, Parmesan cheese, and pineapple pizza: a silly Olympic post
21 year old Giorgia Villa is a member of the Italian gymnastics team. Since injuring her back in 2021, she has been specializing in bars and beam. During prelims, she finished 27th on bars with a 13.666. During team finals, she competed again on bars, helping Italy win their first team medal in women's gymnastics at the Olympics in 94 years. So why should you be interested in this Italian gymnast? The answer: CHEESE.
In 2021, she became an ambassador for Parmigiano Reggiano. The press release said: "The combination of Parmigiano Reggiano and the world of sport is indissoluble in terms of authenticity, quality, and energetic value, both in sporting activity and proper nutrition." This means she did photoshoots with wheels of cheese!
more cheese pictures this way!
A fencer skewering pineapple rings on top of a pizza - what does it all mean?
During the gold medal match for individual foil, defending gold medalist Cheung Ka-long of Hong Kong and Italy's Filippo Macchi were tied 14-14, leading to a sudden death play off. After a referee decision, Leung was declared the winner. Hong Kong has only won four gold medals in Olympic history and Leung won two of them.
The Italian coach, Stefano Cerioni, said that Filippo was "the moral winner" and blamed "incompetence" for the referees' decision. Italian Fencing Federation president Paolo Azzi said, "Filippo Macchi is the real winner and he was denied a gold he deserved." Then Giovanni Malago, the president of Italy's national Olympic Committee (CONI), started making racist accusations, claiming that Hong Kong was awarded the final point because the referees were from Asian countries. He said, "The situation is clear. If you have referees which you draw, the first is from [South] Korea, the second from [Taiwan], you need to change them. You cannot do this. It is opportunism. Find me another sport in the world where you can have referees who come from regions close to one of the countries in action." (I guess that means that there shouldn't be any European judges when Italian athletes are competing in any sport?)
But typical of Hong Kong humor, Hong Kong supporters started trolling Italy by saying that they love pineapple pizza and pasta with soy sauce. Pizza Hut in Hong Kong and Macau joined in by posting an ad on Instagram showing a fencer skewering pineapple rings on top of a pineapple pizza. The ad says you can get pineapple as a free topping.
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