Racist Messages Against Rigivan Ganeshamoorthy: “Criticism About My Skin, They Are Ignorant”
The Italian won the gold medal with a world record in the discus throw at the 2024 Paris Paralympics
Italian Paralympian Rigivan Ganeshamoorthy receives gold medal in discus throw F52 at the Paralympics (ANSA / CIP - ANDREA ALEGNI)
Racism, here we go again: the new Paralympic champion Rigivan Ganeshamoorthy he was targeted with insults and abuse because of the color of his skin.
The 25-year-old Italian, who on Sunday 1st September swept away the competition in the F52 category at the Stade De France in Paris, scoring not one but four record del mondo in a single competition (he threw at 25.48, 25.80, 27.06 and 24.10), he is Roman from rome but born to Sri Lankan parents. That lineage, the dark skin has been the object of criticism from those who do not accept that you can be Italian even if you are not white. And they cannot celebrate the successes of an athlete who brings the Italian colors to the top of the sports Olympus, but they always have to turn up their noses.
"Yesterday, as soon as I picked up my phone, I couldn't touch it because it was so hot: four hundred messages on Whatsapp, over a thousand friend requests on Instagram. I heard from all my family, close friends. People I didn't know complimented me," said Rigi, as his friends and family call him, after receiving the gold medal he won. "Perhaps the only negative thing," he added, "were some people who they wrote indelicate things about skin color. Even in 2024, hearing this is a bit sad. Oh well, they are the ignorant ones, it just slides off me”.
And he proved it on the field by conquering the highest step of the podium, with his irrepressible irony in the post-race interview, showing off that tricolour flag that a neighbour gave him before leaving where it says “Daje Rigi” in perfect Roman dialect for a son of the Capital: in sport there is no room for racism.