Three medals and a statement made without saying a word! Manila Esposito returns from the European Gymnastics Championships with floor exercise gold, balance beam silver, and team silver, her success coming after the cruel comments made on her appearance. But the Italian Olympic bronze medalist refused to let the online criticism distract her, choosing instead to let her performances deliver the response. 

“Reading those comments isn’t nice. But I didn’t reply with words, I replied with results. If you don’t like something, just don’t look at it. I like myself the way I am. Haters are often the more fragile ones,” Esposito said in a statement shared on August 18 by InsideGym.

The comments came to light after Federginnastica, the Italian Gymnastics Federation, posted a video of Esposito on social media. The footage showed the gymnast training before the Championship, but some users quickly shifted the conversation away from her preparation and toward her physique. Some commenters described Esposito as “too big” and “a bit heavy,” while another went even further, suggesting that she would improve if she lost 10 kilograms. 

Esposito did not engage directly with those attacking her appearance. Speaking to ANSA, Esposito admitted that the comments had affected her, but said she did not want to give the people behind them the satisfaction of a direct response.

Get the EssentiallySports Daily Newsletter. Stay ahead of the game with daily updates, exclusive stories, expert takes, and the biggest moments from the world's most popular sports.

“I clearly didn’t like those posts, but I let them slide,” Esposito said. “I didn’t give their authors the satisfaction of responding via messages, but I responded on the field, and I think that was the best reaction.”

But then, her performances in Zagreb gave her plenty to celebrate. For Esposito, those results also helped her put the social-media criticism behind her.

“I haven’t really thought about it too much these past few days in Zagreb, and the fact that I’ve achieved certain results has allowed me to truly put everything behind me,” she said. The Italian gymnast also used the experience to make a wider point about body shaming.

“If these unfair and unjustified behaviors affect me little, they can deeply hurt a more sensitive girl or boy who is targeted solely for their appearance,” Esposito said.

She stressed that athletes, like everyone else, have different body types and should not be expected to fit one physical ideal. Also, the Italian Gymnastics Federation later made its own position clear. After the championships, Andrea Facci, president of the Italian Gymnastics Federation, publicly condemned the comments aimed at Esposito.

Facci said he deliberately waited until the competition had finished before addressing the issue because he did not want the controversy to distract the Italian team in Zagreb.

He added, “First and foremost, I believe that today there is far too much licence granted to the notorious ‘keyboard warriors’, who never take responsibility for their behaviour – behaviour that is often detrimental to people’s dignity, sometimes even that of minors, and in our case, of athletes who fly the flag for Italy on the world stage… In future, we will need to work out how to stop these haters who do not realise the harm they are causing to very young girls.”

He also defended Esposito’s right to feel comfortable in her own body and praised her as “an extraordinary gymnast, a police officer and an Olympian.” For Esposito, who has faced so much and made major sacrifices throughout her journey, this was yet another challenge to rise above.

Manila Esposito’s journey from leaving home young to Olympic glory

Long before she became an Olympic medalist and one of Italy’s leading gymnasts, Manila Esposito had already made major sacrifices for the sport she started at just five years old.

By the age of 15 or 16, Esposito was living at the Accademia Internazionale di Brescia, more than 500 kilometres away from her parents. The move meant spending much of her teenage years away from home while balancing school, intensive training and international competition. Her training schedule was demanding from a young age.

Esposito began doing double training sessions when she was around seven or eight, while also keeping up with her education. At the academy in Brescia, she combined roughly three hours of school each day with long hours of gymnastics training and had to sit annual exams to continue her education. The pressure of competition to the extreme has brought its own set of problems.

In 2023, Esposito was 12th overall in the European Championships, earning silver on balance beam and team silver for Italy. She was 9th in the all-around at the World Championships that year. Those were her results, and she was one of the top young gymnasts in the world, but her best was yet to come.

Everything changed at the 2024 European Championships in Rimini. Esposito won an extraordinary four gold medals, taking the all-around, balance beam, floor exercise, and team titles. Only months later, she made her Olympic debut in Paris. At just 17, Esposito returned home with two Olympic medals, helping Italy win silver in the team competition before taking bronze on balance beam. 

Esposito followed up her breakthrough in 2025. She won her all-around title in the 2025 European Championships and became the first woman to defend her all-around title in two consecutive championships in Leipzig. She also competed in the mixed team event and was awarded the silver medal in floor exercise and the bronze medal in team competition for Italy. By then, Esposito wasn’t just a rising Italian gymnast. She was now amongst Europe’s established stars.