- Comments made by Paola Egonu about leaving the Italian national team due to racial abuse sparked a flood of support on social media.
- The athlete is heard telling her agent in a video that a fan put online after Italy’s win over the U.S.
The comments made this weekend by international volleyball star Paola Egonu about leaving the Italian national team due to racial abuse have sparked a flood of support on social media as well as a discussion about racism in the nation’s sports scene.
The Black athlete is heard telling her agent in a video that a fan put online on Saturday after Italy defeated the United States to win the bronze medal at the women’s world championship: “This is my last game with the national team.”
She said, “You can’t comprehend. “They continue to question why I am Italian.”
The 23-year-old did not name the person in question, but Giuseppe Manfredi, the chairman of the Italian volleyball federation, informed local media that Egonu received racial abuse on social media following Thursday’s semifinal defeat to Brazil.
Manfredi expressed his sympathy for the attacks and mentioned that Egonu has represented Italy at all levels in a statement responding to Egonu’s remarks.
Egonu downplayed her plan to leave the national team in an interview with Sky News following the release of the footage, saying instead she would prefer to take a vacation. She emphasized that this was due to being the target of racial remarks among other things.
She stated, “I wonder why I should represent these kinds of people since I have read people asking me why I am Italian.
Egonu, one of the top players in the world, has long been hailed for her contributions to the national team but has also frequently come under fire after some of the team’s defeats.
Mario Draghi, the departing Italian prime minister, called Egonu on Sunday to offer his support, and his office praised the athlete on Twitter, calling him a “source of pride to Italian sport” who “will have future opportunities to win more titles wearing the national team shirt.”
A significant portion of society prefers not to see or confront racial issue in the sporting world, according to Sbetti.
“Systematic racism exists in Italy, and it is more likely to manifest itself in sports against athletes of African descent because that is where their potential first manifests itself before in other fields because it is a more meritocratic environment where the greatest emerge.”
Racism has long been a problem in Italian sports.
In 2017, during a game against Romania, national football team supporters racially attacked forward Mario Balotelli, who was born to Ghanaian parents in the southern city of Palermo.
According to Luigi Manconi, the director of the National Observatory against Discrimination in Sport, 80 percent of discriminatory offenses against athletes are related to their race, ethnicity, or national origin.
Manconi stated, “It’s a component that’s present in sports that needs to be fought against. “We must constantly exercise extreme caution.”
The controversy has arisen at a delicate moment in Italian politics, as the treatment of minorities, immigrants, and LGBTQ populations became a key topic in the country’s election campaign in September, which resulted in a hard-right coalition winning the election.
Critics have voiced concern that the new administration, which is headed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the head of the Brothers of Italy party, may unintentionally pave the way for the acceptance of homophobic and racial discrimination.
Cara Paola, si chiama razzismo, si chiamano razzisti, e fanno tanto male. Ma tu non sei sola: è la nostra lotta, e come tu insegni a tutti noi dal campo, insieme siamo forti e vinciamo.
Viva l’Italia, e viva la nostra meravigliosa Paola Egonu 🇮🇹 https://t.co/qNsDO7lIgd
— Elena Bonetti (@elenabonetti) October 15, 2022
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