At the age of 17, Tony Gemignani had a talent for tossing pizza dough and he put on a show for people at his brother’s pizza place in Castro Valley, California.
People would watch in wonder as he tossed dough 15 feet in the air and slid it through his legs with the dough not falling to the ground. The restaurant was a basketball court for the man who was capable of improvising with the kitchen ingredients.
His passion for the sport gained admiration from the fascinated customers. “I loved it, and customers loved it,” Gemignani said.
Almost 30 years later, Gemignani has become a pizza acrobat, with 13 world championship titles, seven of which are for acrobatics and six for cooking. He has won several Guinness World Records, one of them being for the “largest pizza base spun in [two] minutes.”
“Tricks that you see a Harlem Globetrotter do with a basketball, we do with a pizza,” he said.
Any competitive sport requires time and dedication to reach a level of mastery. Although pizza acrobat sounds silly, there is a level of mastery involved in the sport. It requires focus, coordination and physical strength.
“It’s hard. You need agility,” Gemignani said. “There’s some stamina involved. You’d be surprised.”
People take the competition very seriously with people flying in around the world to compete for first place. There is a fee of about $100 to enter the competitions and there are company sponsorships. Winners are awarded cash prizes but most of them are lured in with fancy medals and prestigious titles.
Pizza is part of his calorie intake and workout regime. Eating pizza and exercising with pizza doesn’t get old for this athlete. “I could never get sick of pizza,” Gemignani said, who also teaches cooking courses. “I could eat it every day.”
Source: https://youtu.be/ODOoYGTVvHc