U.S. Pizza Team member Scott Volpe made a bid for glory and grabbed the gold medal in Freestyle Acrobatics at the World Pizza Championship (WPC) this week in Parma, Italy.

It was the third trip to Parma for Volpe, the owner of Fiamme Pizza in Tucson. On his second trip in 2018, he took silver in the dough-spinning competition that involved 29 spinners (see photo below). This week he became the USPT’s second gold-medal winner in the last four years. Jamie Culliton won the Freestyle Acrobatics gold medal in 2016 after previously winning silver.

Volpe earned his place on this year’s USPT squad after winning the Winter Trials event at the Mid-America Restaurant Expo in Columbus, Ohio, in January. That event aired live on ESPN3 as part of PMQ’s partnership with Go Live Sports Cast.

The U.S. Pizza Team holds trial events across the country in anticipation of the WPC. The USPT trials are designed to mimic the Italian event to better prepare the competitors. The winner of each trial receives a free trip to the WPC.

This is a developing story. We will update it as more information from Italy becomes available.