With the 2024 Paris Olympics well underway, some viewers at home have been left convinced they spotted an Eminem doppelganger among the athletes.
The competitor at the centre of the joke is Mauro Nespoli, who was representing his native Italy during the archery segment of the Olympic Games.
Stepping up to shoot for the Italian team, the archer was seen wearing a blue t-shirt and a white sunhat, and viewers were quick to point out how he had a noticeable resemblance to the Detroit rap icon.
“Wtf why is Eminem on the Italian archery team I thought he was American?” one wrote on X/Twitter as he appeared on screen, while another joked “Italian @Eminem about to lose himself in some Archery”.
Italian Eminem #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/aDYbk006LZ
— Today Years Old (@todayyearsoldig) July 29, 2024
The latter was far from the first to make reference to the artist’s hit 2002 song ‘Lose Yourself’ when Nespoli stood up to take his turn.
“Italian Eminem eating mom’s spaghetti it all makes sense now,” another added, while others added comments like: “If you have one shot or one opportunity…”, “You only get one shot,” and “Hopefully his palms aren’t sweaty.”
Another made a quick quip that it was the rapper’s Italian twin, “Marcello Mathers’. Find more responses below.
If you have one shot or one opportunity…
— AP 📈 (@Trader_Pow) July 29, 2024
Yoooo it’s Marcello Mathers
— Frank Ammirante (@FAmmiranteTFJ) July 29, 2024
You only get one shot.
— ZUBY: (@ZubyMusic) July 30, 2024
Italian Eminem eating mom’s spaghetti
it all makes sense now!
— Aaron Maas (@RonnyNextLevel) July 29, 2024
With that bow in his hands, arms are heavy.
— Bart (@TheSzef) July 29, 2024
There’s vomit on his sweater already, Nonna’s Spaghetti
— Jeff Eisenband (@JeffEisenband) July 30, 2024
Nespoli won gold in archery back at the 2012 London Olympics, and has since gone on to get two more Olympic medals under his belt: a silver from Beijing and another at the Tokyo 2020 games.
At time of writing, Italy is eighth in the table at the Paris Olympics, with two golds, three silvers and the bronzes.
The comparisons come shortly after the rapper dropped his latest album ‘The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)’, which saw him kill off his alter ego Slim Shady and was described as a “conceptual album”.
In a three-star review of ‘The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce)’,, Jordan Bassett wrote for NME: “So, who killed Slim Shady? In bringing him back to the light and showing him up as irrelevant, perhaps Eminem’s done his old pal in for good. OK, we get it – Shady was a shocking character. Now that he’s dead, how about getting some new material?”
Since then, the rapper has taken part in a new video titled Slim Shady vs Marshall Mathers: The Face-Off, which sees him sit down with an AI-generated version of Slim Shady for a heated argument that spans their entire career.
The Paris Olympics kicked off last Friday (July 26) with a divisive opening ceremony that included performances from a showstopping Celine Dion, a pre-recorded Lady Gaga and a history-making Gojira.
Since then, Taylor Swift has reacted to her track ‘…Ready For It?’ being used in an NBC advert for the Games. “So ready to scream at my TV cheering for these athletes,” she wrote.