Giorgia Villa: "My dream has always been to take part in an Olympics, and it will remain the same.”

It would have been easy for Italian gymnast Giorgia Villa to throw in the towel.

The 19-year-old, who stormed to gymnastics prominence when she won three golds at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, was dealt a devastating blow some 15 months ago.

That’s when – with just days to go until the Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony – an ankle injury at the Italian championships dashed her dreams of competing at the Games in the Japanese capital city.

“Tokyo is now the past, so I’m looking ahead. Unfortunately, I can’t change what happened,” said Villa in an exclusive interview with Olympics.com during August’s European Championships in Munich where she helped her Italian team to a second-ever and first in 16 years women’s team gold medal.

The devastation of missing the Games and the failure of team, which was third at the 2019 World Championships, has only fueled her desire.

“I followed my teammates from home, and I was disappointed too when they failed to win a medal because they are still my teammates,” said Villa. “I supported them even from afar, but this is helping us to be stronger and more motivated to take this medal that we all deserve.”

Giorgia Villa on injuries: 'Gymnastics is my life'

Villa admits to having had her doubts early on in as she built back to competitive form.

“It hasn’t been easy, especially at the beginning. Like any athlete in my situation, I thought: ‘Enough, I want to quit. I can’t do gymnastics anymore…’ But I think that was normal,” she explained. “Then, when I stopped training for one month or so, after just two weeks I felt I missed all of this. I understood that gymnastics is my life, and now, my goal is trying to get a spot in the team and compete at the Olympics.”

Her 2022 season has seen success.

In addition to European team gold, the squad won gold at the Mediterranean Games where Villa was the champion on the uneven bars.

Though it was an ankle injury that kept Villa from the Games a year ago, a bad back had limited her to just the uneven bars and balance beam in competition.

The injury was so bad, she doubted that it would ever be strong enough to compete on floor and vault again, saying “The pain is still a lot, but in the future never say never. Perhaps the situation will improve, but I’m not really optimistic.”

Big goals lie ahead

But Villa competed on all four events at October’s Italian championships where she finished in fourth place. On Instagram, she revealed that she had started training on the two events just a week prior to the event.

That shouldn’t be a surprise for someone who has never shied away from a challenge.

“We always repeat to ourselves that we don’t have limits,” she said of her mindset in overcoming obstacles in her sport. “We must look beyond despite all the difficulties and challenges and focus on our goal since we were kids.”

For now, that means helping her Italian team to a medal and automatic team qualification to the Olympic Games at the World Championships in Liverpool.

“Our goal is trying to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics already in Liverpool. As we showed in Stuttgart nothing is impossible and let’s hope we can repeat what we did three years ago,” said Villa.”

No matter the outcome in England, Villa is determined to push ahead to her ultimate goal.

“My dream has always been to take part in an Olympics,” she said, “and it will remain the same.”