"It's Marcello Mathers"— Fans react as viral picture of Olympic athlete called the 'Italian Eminem' goes viral 

Italian athlete Mauro Nespoli who is competing in the Olympics this year, recently garnered attention from the netizens online. Netizens discovered that the 36-year-old athlete resembled rapper Eminem. Olympics 2024, which began on Friday, July 26, 2024, had been witnessing several athletes giving their best in different events.

Several netizens had flooded the internet while talking about this resemblance with the rapper. Some further described him as "Italian Eminem." Here are some of the reactions online:

A fan reacted to Mauro Nespoli's resemblance to rapper Eminem, (Photo via @FAmmiranteTFJ/X)

One user tweeted:

"Slim shady faked his death for this? 😭"

"All the other slim shadys are just imitating," wrote another user.

"Slim shady died but resurrected to sling arrows," read a tweet.

A lot of interesting and hilarious comments have been made on X.

"Eminem come get your twin," one wrote.

"Hello. It's Eminem shooting an arrow," shared a user.

"We have not seen the US Eminem and The Italian Eminem together in the same room," commented a netizen.

Nespoli is an Italian archer and is one of the most decorated athletes in the country. The 2024 Paris Olympics marked the fifth one for Nespoli. Additionally, in an individual event in 2020 at the Tokyo Olympics, he won the silver medal, and his team won the gold medal in the 2012 Olympics in London.

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Exploring the life and career of Italian archer Mauro Nespoli, who seems to resemble rapper Eminem

Recently, social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter and even Reddit have been filled with comments claiming that Nespoli looks exactly like Houdini rapper. While netizens came up with some interesting and funny comments on social media platforms, it could be worth knowing more about this Italian archer who had received several medals at the Olympics before.

36-year-old Mauro Nespoli was born in Voghera, Italy back in November 1987. He first came across archers at the age of nine when he was visiting the Italian town of Aprico. Nespoli was coached by archer Luciano Malovini, who was an archer on the Paralympic team. In 1998, Nespoli received his first gold medal in the Italian "Giochi della Gioventù" (Youth Games). At the age of 14, in 2002, Nespoli was selected to be a part of the Italian Junior National Team.

A few years later, in 2006, he made his place in the Italian Senior National Team as well. Over the years, the seemingly Eminem-look alike had won several prestigious medals including a Bronze medal in the Outdoor European Junior Cup, 5 Gold Individual medals in the Indoor/Outdoor Italian Championship, and 1 Silver Individual medal in the Outdoor Italian Championship 2007, to name a few.

According to the Paris Olympics officials page, Nespoli had been ranked at 20th position, as of now, in the individual category with a score of 670. Under the team category, Mauro Nespoli and his team made it to seventh position with a score of 1990.

The photo of Nespoli that went viral and gave rise to netizens comparing his looks to that of the Mockingbird rapper's, was of him competing in the men's team archery quarter-final, against France on July 29. In the match, the French team defeated them by 6-2 overall.

In the medal table, as reported by The Mirror, Italy has secured the 8th position, with two golds, three silvers, and three bronze medals.

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While the Olympic opening ceremony took place on Friday, July 26, 2024, some of the events began even before that. Those were, however, only the preliminary rounds with the first set of medals being distributed on July 27, 2024. Chiara Rebagliati marked Italy's debut in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Chiara played her first game in the Olympics in 2020, when it was held in Tokyo.

Archers like Mauro Nespoli, Alessandro Paoli, and Federico Musolesi, performed on July 29, 2024.