This Olympic Gymnast That's Actually Sponsored By Parmigiano Reggiano

The Italian gymnast and Olympic silver medalist Giorgia Villa is breaking the internet with pictures from her time as the ambassador for Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. We all know of kitchen stunts featuring Parmesan, like Giada De Laurentiis' Trick For Elevating Store-Bought Sauce. But Parmesan stunts in the gymnasium? From handstands and splits over wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano to hugging one of those hefty cheese wheels, Villa's pictures combine two unlikely elements into a perfectly viral recipe. Along with her team, Villa helped secure Italy's first Olympic gymnastics medal in almost a century at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Before that, Italy had bagged the gymnastics silver at the Amsterdam Olympics in 1928. That is also the year that the Consortium for the Protection of the Grana Reggiano — the body that oversees authentic Parmigiano Reggiano production and imprints those dots on Parmesan wheels — was established.

Back in 2021, barely three months before the Tokyo Olympics, Villa signed a brand partnership with Parmigiano Reggiano. Unfortunately, due to an injury days before the games opened, she had to sit the Tokyo Olympics out. Now, with her Olympic silver medal, Villa's prowess as an athlete and her delicious partnership with one of the world's most iconic cheeses are both in the spotlight. It's also drawing attention to some of the other athletes that Parmigiano Reggiano has tied up with, and the company's claims that its cheese is a beneficial food for athletes.

Giorgia Villa has practiced gymnastics since the age of 3 and began training at the Italian Gymnastics Federation's International Academy of Brescia when she was 11. Before her Olympic silver, she won three individual gold medals at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games, a bronze medal at the 2019 World Championships, and gold medals at the Mediterranean Games and European Championships in 2022.

The April 2021 announcement in Impresa e sport about her tie-up with Parmigiano Reggiano referred to Villa as the "spearhead of the national rhythmic gymnastics team." The athlete also posted a photo in her gymnastics leotard next to a wheel and a wedge of Parmigiano Reggiano and wrote in a (translated) Instagram post, "Since I was a child I've always loved this amazing product, a symbol of excellence and Italian culture, and since today being able to collaborate with them makes me extremely proud and excited to face future challenges!" Subsequent posts feature her training around the cheese wheels and munching on snack-sized Parmigiano Reggiano.

While the sponsorship seemingly concluded in 2022, photos from the collaboration continue to get a lot of attention. Some have wondered whether the wheel she is seen hugging is real, considering how heavy it is. Others have pointed out that using multiple real cheese wheels would've raised the photos' production cost significantly, and given that a training gym isn't the best place to store Parmesan, what happened to the cheese after the shoot?

The announcement about Giorgia Villa's partnership with Parmigiano Reggiano also mentions how the cheese and the world of sports make a good combination "in terms of authenticity, quality and energetic value, both in sporting activity and in correct nutrition." The cheese consortium later mentioned (via People) how Parmigiano Reggiano is an important part of an athlete's diet and makes for a natural energy-boosting snack that's free of additives, easy to digest, and lactose-free. In another Instagram post, Villa also corroborated saying how a Parmigiano Reggiano snack helped her recover energy and prepare for her next workout.

While you'd expect glowing reviews in sponsored posts, studies by the Department of Internal Medicine, University of Florence (via NCBI) also suggest that Parmigiano Reggiano can be considered a functional food for its high nutritional value and health benefits. In addition to being energy-dense and high in protein and calcium, it contains several beneficial minerals and trace elements. The fat content in Parmigiano Reggiano, about 28%, is also below average.

As such, the cheese consortium has partnered with other Italian athletes including tennis prodigy Jannik Sinner who is currently world rank No. 1, and the Olympic fencing champion Elisa Di Francisca. Both athletes also have interesting photos featuring a combination of sport and cheese, including a post with Sinner sitting on a stack of cheese wheels, and another post of Francisca with a piece of Parmigiano Reggiano on the tip of her flexible fencing sword.