name: Irma Testa
Country: Italy
Sports: Boxing, featherweight
Olympic experience: Rio 2016, Tokyo 2021
Social media: Instagram
Who is Irma Testa?
Irma Testa is only 26 years old, but the history-maker known as “Butterfly” has already made her mark in the Olympic history books of Italian women's sport.
In Tokyo, she won bronze in the featherweight (57 kg) weight class, becoming the first Italian woman to win an Olympic medal in that sport. Testa also won the European championships in that weight class in 2019 and 2022, and won a bronze medal at the 2023 European Games, qualifying her for next month's games in Paris.
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Her Olympic success inspired her to take it further, and a few months later she came out publicly.
“The Tokyo medal became my shield. Now that Irma the athlete is safe, Irma the woman can be sincere,” she said in an interview with the Italian edition of Vanity Fair magazine in December 2021. “And I do so at a time when it is fundamental to expose myself.”
“There are people who suffer discrimination, there are victims of bullying, there are people who cannot build their lives because they don't know how to interact with a hostile society,” she continued. “Every human being should be protected and safe. There are still too many people who are discriminated against and this is not okay. I can't do much, but by telling the truth about myself I can also say that I haven't done anything wrong.”
It's a fitting statement given her job away from sport: Testa is an officer in Italy's national civil police force. She's also an outspoken voice in a national campaign on violence against women, which will begin in 2022.
“We women must never be pushed into a corner. Let us show solidarity with each other. Let us not be overwhelmed by the fear of not reporting,” she told Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper last November. “At the Olympic Games, we will dedicate all the games to women who are victims of violence.”
Irma Testa at the Paris Summer Olympics
Testa comes to Paris with a successful record, having previously won all of her matches as the defending IBA Amateur World Champion at featherweight, and also a gold medal contender in Paris, Karina Ibragimova of Kazakhstan.
Japan's Sena Irie won the featherweight gold medal in Tokyo but is reportedly retiring from the sport in 2022 to attend graduate school.
But two of the threats Testa faced in Tokyo will come to Paris with a shot at gold: Tokyo Olympic silver medalist Nesty Petecio, who beat Testa in the Olympic semifinals, qualified for Paris after winning Olympic qualifying in March. Ireland's 2022 Commonwealth Games champion Michaela Walsh also qualified in the 2024 draw. Testa beat Walsh on her way to the bronze medal three years ago.
Testa, Petecio and Walsh are connected in another way: They're all members of Team LGBTQ.
