Who Is Giorgia Villa?

Giorgia Villa is in the midst of her comeback tour. After suffering an injury days before leaving for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, the Italian gymnast was forced to sit out what would have been her first career shot at Olympic glory. In Paris, however, she’s back with a vengeance. On Tuesday, Villa — alongside teammates Manila Esposito, Alice D’Amato, Angela Andreoli, and Elisa Iorio — secured the country’s first-ever team gymnastics medal, bringing home a silver medal behind the dominant Americans led by Simone Biles. But aside from general athletic excellence, the 21-year-old has also racked up some online acclaim because she, at one point, was sponsored by Parmigiano Reggiano. Yes, a Parmesan cheese sponsorship.

As my colleague Olivia Craighead noted, the Ponte San Pietro native doesn’t seem to have posted any sponsored cheese photos on Instagram since 2022. But leave it to internet sleuths to dig up perhaps the most glorious pictures I’ve seen out of this year’s Olympics (aside from Team USA’s gymnasts post-gold medal and Pommel-Horse Guy napping), which include but are not limited to: Villa cradling a wheel of Parmesan, Villa doing handstands near a wheel of Parmesan, and Villa doing the splits on four wheels of Parmesan.

“The very young athlete, spearhead of the national … gymnastics team, has in fact become the brand’s new ambassador, with all the enthusiasm and freshness of her splendid age,” Italian marketing agency Impresa e Sport wrote in an old announcement of the collaboration. “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 in correct nutrition.”

This leads me to several pressing questions: Did Parmigiano Reggiano send Team Italia individual wheels of cheese for each athlete? Is there a special lunchtime hour dedicated to eating said cheese? Is the combination of Parmigiano Reggiano and the world of sport really “indissoluble”? Regardless, congratulations are in order for Villa’s Olympic achievements. May she always exude the “Commitment, Persistence, Passion!” of a Parmigiano Reggiano wheel of cheese.