Carlotta Ferlito, Italian Gymnast, Sparks Outrage After Racist Comments Toward Simone Biles; Italian Official Displays Shocking Bigotry As "Apology"

Carlotta Ferlito, an Italian gymnast, has provoked worldwide outrage by claiming the gymnast who won the world championship did so because of her skin color....and the comments of an Italian official added fuel to the fire.

American Simone Biles, 16, just won the world championship, becoming the first black all-around world champion on Friday.

Ferlito, who finished fifth, told a journalist that she had just joked with teammate Vanessa Ferrari, who come fourth, that they should "paint themselves black" in order to win next time.

She said, 'I told Vanny (Ferrari) that next time we should also paint our skin black, so then we could win too.'

She quickly apologized on Twitter, but the damage had been done.

Ferlito tweeted: 'I want to apologise with the Americans girls. I didn't want to sound rude or racist. I love Simone and I'm a huge fan of USA gymnastics.'

She also added: 'I've made a mistake, I'm not perfect... I didn't think about what I was saying. I'm just a human. I'm so so sorry.'

The fight, erm, escalated after an official tried to calm things down by posting on Facebook. Italian Gymnastics Federation official David Ciaralli made comments that started sort of reasonable, maybe, if bigotry is OK, and turned into some of the most ridiculously racist things ever-like, everrrrr.

'Carlotta was referring to a trend in gymnastics at this moment, which is going towards a technique that opens up new chances to athletes of colour (well-known for power) while penalising the more artistic Eastern European style that allowed Russians and Romanians to dominate the sport for years.'

Ok, sure, maybe. Then his comments got ridic:

"'Why are there no black swimmers? Because their physical features don't suit the sport.' Ciaralli also said that black people 'may not have some of the necessities to be, let's say, a field manager or a general manager' and that they aren't good swimmers because they 'don't have the buoyancy'."

Umm.... ok.

USA Gymnastics has demanded an explanation of his comments, unsurprisingly.

Still, Biles is happy she won. It still hasn't sunken in, she said.

It hasn't sunken in yet [that I am the world champion].

'I am sure it will eventually, but we still have finals so we can't get too excited about it yet. But I know what I have done is a huge accomplishment and I am very happy.'