Graffiti celebrating Italian volleyball player Paola Egonu vandalized after Italy wins Olympic gold

ROME (AP) — Rome’s mayor and a chorus of others have denounced the defacing of a street-art celebration of Paola Egonu, who helped lead Italy to its first-ever Olympic gold medal in women's volleyball in Paris and who has faced years of racist abuse at home.

Egonu, who was born in Italy to parents of Nigerian origin, was named tournament MVP after she led Italy to beat the U.S. defending champions on Sunday on the final day of the Games. The gold medal capped a dominant Olympic tournament in which the Italian women lost just one set.

Hours after the Games ended, street artist Laika celebrated Egonu with a work of graffiti opposite the Rome headquarters of the Italian Olympic Committee. Entitled “Italianness,” the graffiti showed Egonu, with her trademark long ponytail and wearing her Azzurri blue uniform, spiking a ball that had the words “Stop racism, hatred, xenophobia,” on it.

It was a reference to the years of racist abuse Egonu has endured as a Black athlete in Italy, with prominent figures regularly questioning her citizenship and “Italianness.” Egonu is Italian and was even awarded one of the country’s highest civilian honors in 2021 by the Italian president.

A day after images of Laika's graffiti celebration began circulating, someone painted over the original work, turning Egonu’s dark skin pink and blurring out the words on the volleyball.

Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri denounced the vandalism as a “vile, shameful insult” to both Egonu and Laika.

In a statement that praised Egonu's athletic greatness and Laika’s commitment to fighting xenophobia, Gualtieri said it was “sad that in 2024 there are still racists who are prisoners of their own ignorance who want to roll back the hands of history.”

At some point on Tuesday, someone used a dark marker to try to restore Laika’s original design.

In 2022, Egonu threatened to quit the national team after being subject to racist abuse online questioning whether she was Italian, evidence of common assumptions here that anyone who is Black is a newly arrived migrant.

In a social media post explaining the graffiti, Laika wrote that there’s no place in Italy for xenophobia, racism, hatred or intolerance. “Racism is a social plague that must be overcome. Doing so via sport is so important,” Laika wrote.

The winning Italian volleyball team featured other Black Italians, as well as Ekaterina Antropova, a Russian who has long played in Italy and was granted Italian citizenship by the government last year.

The vandalism was front-page news in Italy on Wednesday, with major dailies featuring the before and after images of Laika’s work and commentary lamenting how anyone could question Egonu’s “Italianness” after she brought such unprecedented glory to Italy.

Targeted for particular ire was the new European Parliamentarian for the xenophobic League party, Roberto Vannacci, who wrote in his 2023 racist manifesto that Egonu's “somatic traits” weren't like most Italians — a comment he repeated after Italy's Olympic victory while nevertheless congratulating Egonu and the team.

“Pink skin lives only in the infantile fantasies of those who were born in another world and stayed there as misfits,” wrote Giulia Zonca in Wednesday’s La Stampa daily.

On Wednesday at the site of the defaced graffiti, passers-by were well aware of the vandalism, and cheered that someone had tried to restore Egonu’s likeness to Laika's original.

“Honestly I don’t see why anyone would ruin a nice homage to an athlete who brought honor to Italy,” said Irene Cagli. “We are all Italian, each of us is different, each is the same, and it’s beautiful this way.”

The issue also reignited the long-standing debate in Italy over citizenship, given that Egonu – like any child born and raised in Italy to non-Italian parents – had no automatic right to Italian citizenship at birth. She obtained it later, after her parents became Italian.

“We believe that those who are born or are raised in Italy is Italian, and we’ll continue to fight to change the law on citizenship,” said the head of the Democratic Party, Elly Schlein.

AP visual journalists Leila El Zabri and Silvia Stellacci contributed to this report.

From left Gabriela Braga of Brazil, Paola Egonu of Italy and Chiaka Ogbogu of the United States, show their medals after ceremony at the end of the women's volleyball final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024, in Paris, France.(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

A woman takes a photo of a mural in homage to the Italian volleyball player Paola Egonu, on a wall, in front of the CONI headquarters in Viale Tiziano in Rome, Monday, Aug. 12 2024. (Mauro Scrobogna/LaPresse via AP)

A view of a mural in homage to the Italian volleyball player Paola Egonu, on a wall, in front of the CONI headquarters in Viale Tiziano in Rome, Monday, Aug. 12 2024. (Mauro Scrobogna/LaPresse via AP)

FILE - Paola Egonu of Italy shows her gold medal after the medal ceremony at the end of the women's volleyball final match against the United States of America at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)

A woman takes a picture at Laika's street-art celebration of Paola Egonu, who helped lead Italy to its first-ever Olympic gold medal in women's volleyball, in Rome, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. A day after images of the graffiti began circulating, someone painted over Laika's original work, turning Egonu's dark skin pink and blurring out the words on the volleyball. At some point on Tuesday, someone used a dark marker to try to restore Laika's original design. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

A woman takes a picture at Laika's street-art celebration of Paola Egonu, who helped lead Italy to its first-ever Olympic gold medal in women's volleyball, in Rome, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. A day after images of the graffiti began circulating, someone painted over Laika's original work, turning Egonu's dark skin pink and blurring out the words on the volleyball. At some point on Tuesday, someone used a dark marker to try to restore Laika's original design. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Paola Egonu of Italy takes the ball during a gold medal women's volleyball match between the United States of America and Italy at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Paola Egonu of Italy shows her gold medal after the medal ceremony at the end of the women's volleyball final match against the United States of America at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024, in Paris, France.(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

A man takes a picture at Laika's street-art celebration of Paola Egonu, who helped lead Italy to its first-ever Olympic gold medal in women's volleyball, in Rome, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

DETROIT (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday repeated false claims that Chinese automakers are putting up large factories in Mexico, vowing during a stop in the automaking state of Michigan to slap 200% tariffs on any vehicles the unbuilt plants make and ship to the United States.

Trump also claimed during an event in Flint that if Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris is elected in November, there will be no more auto industry in the U.S., because work building electric vehicles will go to China.

That statement came even though automaking employment has grown since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, after dropping during Trump's first term.

“If I don't win, you will have no auto industry within two to three years," Trump said, calling any increases under Biden and Harris temporary. “You will not have any manufacturing plants. China is going to take over all of them because of the electric car.”

He told the crowd he would make foreign automakers build factories in the U.S. by imposing tariffs on imported autos, saying it “will be like taking candy from a baby.”

Foreign automakers already have multiple U.S. factories, mainly in southern states.

Auto jobs dipped 0.8% during Trump's term to just over 949,000 in January 2021, when he left office, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since Biden took office that month, auto and parts jobs rose 13.6% to 1.07 million in August, so there's no evidence of the industry disappearing. Auto sales were up 2.4% in the first half of this year.

Trump said his tariffs would make Chinese vehicles built in Mexico unsellable in the U.S., forcing automakers from China and elsewhere to set up factories in the U.S.

“They’re owned and built by China in Mexico, and there are a number of them going up right now,” Trump said of Chinese factories.

Although some Chinese automakers aspire to sell in the U.S., industry analysts say there are no large Chinese-owned auto factories under construction in Mexico, and there's only one small Chinese auto assembly factory operating there. It’s run by a company called JAC that builds inexpensive vehicles from kits for sale in that country.

Trump also promised to charge tariffs on vehicles made in other countries if those countries tax U.S.-made vehicles. But often tariffs end up being passed on to consumers in the country that assesses them.

A message was left Tuesday night seeking comment from the Harris campaign.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks during a town hall event at the Dort Financial Center, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in Flint, Mich. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks during a town hall event at the Dort Financial Center in Flint, Mich., Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)