Olympic gymnast Giorgia Villa's bizarre sponsorship resurfaces and people camembert-lieve it

Sponsorships are pretty commonplace in the world of sport – not least when it comes to major international events such as the Olympics, currently underway in Paris – but Instagram posts about a former brand partnership between 21-year-old gymnast Giorgia Villa (who represents Italy) and a type of cheese, parmigiano reggiano, has had people doing a double take.

It was back in 2021 and 2022 that the silver medallist posted pictures of her with the cheese, which is known as parmesan to most people but – similar to that of the Champagne region of France – has the legal name of parmigiano reggiano when it’s produced in certain areas of Italy.

Promotional photos see Villa hugging a giant circular block of cheese, sitting on several blocks of cheese, and slicing into a bit of cheese, in summary.

Basically, cheese everywhere.

In one post she brands the cheese her “best friend”, while in another – from April 2021 – she writes: “I am very happy to be part of the great parmigiano reggiano family. 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!”

And as the world’s attention turns to the Olympics, people have been keen to point out this particular fact:

Others are wondering what they have to do to get a cheese sponsorship – a valid question, if you ask us:

And seeing as we’ve thrown in a load around this article ourselves, is it any surprise that countless puns were also tweeted out?

It’s certainly not a bad partnership, considering people may well think that if it’s gouda-nough for Villa, it’s gouda-nough for them (sorry).

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