*Rome (CNN) — Two years after Italian volleyball player Paola Egonu stepped down from the national volleyball team after racial abuse on social media became too distracting, she has become the target of racism once again. Egonu, 25, who is of Nigerian heritage, was born in Padua and has Italian citizenship.
A mural by Italian street artist Laika was intended to celebrate not only Egonu’s return to the team, which beat the United States to win a gold medal in women’s volleyball but also her being named MVP at Paris 2024.
The mural, titled “Italian-ness,” was unveiled Monday across from the Italian National Olympic Committee headquarters near the Olympic stadium in Rome. It depicted Egonu in full flight, spiking a volleyball bearing the words “Stop racism, hate, xenophobia, ignorance.”
Within 24 hours it had been defaced, with her skin painted over in pink and the anti-hate message erased.
In June, Egonu lost a defamation lawsuit against European Parliament member Roberto Vannacci, a former army general who is a member of Matteo Salvini’s right-wing League party, who had said in a book that her features did not “represent Italian-ness.”
After the Italian team took gold at the Paris Olympics, beating the US 3-0 in Sunday’s final, he doubled down on his claim, telling Italian media outlets: “I am very happy that the Italian volleyball team won and I congratulate all the athletes, especially Paola Egonu, who is a very talented athlete.
“I have never questioned her Italian-ness,” he added, “but I want to point out again that her physical characteristics do not represent the majority of Italians.”
Rome’s mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, responded to the vandalism with an image of the original mural. “The act of vandalism on the work depicting Paola Egonu is simply intolerable,” he wrote on X. “It is an insult to a great Italian who brought the colors of our country to the top of the world and to a committed artist. It is sad to note that in 2024 there are still racists, prisoners of their own ignorance who think they can turn back the hands of history.”
Italy’s tourism minister, Daniela Santanchè, also commented on X, writing: “It is sad to have to give visibility to the cowardly gesture of those who defaced the mural of the splendid Paola Egonu, but every form of racism must be denounced and fought.“
Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, posted an image of the original mural on X and expressed his “total indignation for this serious act of crude racism,” adding, “My commitment against any form of discrimination is maximum, especially to raise awareness among the youngest on episodes like this. Forza Paola, you are our pride.”
Italy is no stranger to racism in sports. In January, the soccer team Udinese was sanctioned after its supporters made monkey noises directed at AC Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan. In 2019, the Italian Soccer Federation drew scorn after launching an anti-racism campaign using monkey faces with different soccer team kits.
On Wednesday morning, a passerby repainted the skin on the mural black, and covered up the racist comments, repainting the volleyball with the words “racism stop.”
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