Olympic gymnast faces body-shaming, people label her as 'fat'

Alexa Moreno competed for Mexico in the artistic gymnastics qualifications in Rio on Sunday.

The young 22-year-old gymnast is one of the few athletes representing Mexico in a category that rarely sees Mexican participation.

To get to the Olympics and perform on uneven bars, floor, beam and jump is unheard of in Mexico.

Reuters

She competed in five events, ranking highest in the women's vault, for which she came in 12th — ahead of athletes from Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and Hungary, among others. She outscored 54 women in the floor exercise competition, too.

But trolls see beyond these achievements and took to social media to criticize her 4'11", 44.9kg body.

AFP

Twitter users spewed vitriolic criticism, insulting her physical appearance. Some even compared her to animated animals.

Loosely translated, one commenter wrote: 'Alexa Moreno has the body of two gymnasts together, a diet before going to the Olympics would have been nice.'

Another man called Moreno a 'pseudo-athlete'.

One man attributed a made-up quote about wishing to win a hot dog-eating contest to Alexa. His account has since been deleted.

This body-shaming and insults about her weight and figure also attracted many to come to her defense.

One supporter wrote that while the whole world was applauding Alexa's performance in Brazil, Mexicans are calling her fat and complaining that she didn't advance on to the finals.

AFP

Another woman pointed, "You idolize a drug dealer but you don’t recognize Alexa Moreno, who’s put in effort in spite of her critics. #DoubleStandards”.

Another Twitter user wrote, "… the moment we see someone different, who tries to do something, we turn all Mexican!! Alexa Moreno, you make us proud!!”

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.