An Italian Olympic weightlifter won bronze at the 2024 Paris Games while on trial for rape in his home country, according to a new report on Tuesday.
Antonino Pizzolato placed third for Italy in the Snatch and Clean and Jerk event at 81kg this summer but did so during an ongoing trial for the gang rape of a 29-year-old Finnish tourist in Sicily that began well before the Olympics, according to the Italian publication Corriere Della Sera.
According to the report, the accusations are believed to be from July 2022, with the trial starting in December 2023.
Pizzolato is a defendant accused in the case along with friends Davide Lupo, Claudio Tutino and Stefano Mongiovi.
The alleged incident is believed to have taken place where Lupo was staying.
They were all charged with rape of a person “with limited self-control and in a state of stupor and mental inhibition such as to prevent her from energetically resisting the acts of violence.”
The victim met the defendants at a restaurant, befriended them and went with them and two other friends to a beach club, an Italian court heard.
She also informed the court she went back to one of the defendant’s rooms while heavily intoxicated. There she claimed to have been raped by all four men to the point she was begging them to stop while crying.
The Corriere Della Sera report also states she was examined in a hospital after reporting the alleged incident to police and witness reports backed up the victim’s statements about the events.
Pizzolato, who also competed in the Tokoyo Olympics, has a bit of a checkered history in the sport as he was handed a 10-month suspension in 2018 from the Italian Weightlifting Federation. He admitted to charges of bullying and threatening teammates, who were minors at the time.
His bronze medal in Paris was also shrouded in controversy after it was suggested he illegally bent his arm on his lift of 384 kg.
Karlos Nasar of Bulgaria — who set a new world record — won the event and Colombia’s Yeison Lopez was second.
