Pizza acrobatics is a sport. This man has won 13 world championships.

“I loved it and customers loved it,” said Gemignani.

More than three decades later, Gemignani, now 49, is a celebrated pizza acrobat with 13 world titles under his belt, seven for acrobatics and six for cooking. He has also won several Guinness World Records, including “Largest twisted pizza base [two] Protocol.” (The cake was 33.2 inches wide.)

“Tricks that a Harlem globetrotter does with a basketball, we do with a pizza,” he said.

Pizza acrobatics, sometimes called pizza freestyle or pizza throwing, has been around since the 1980s. The sport—actually considered a sport—is throwing mountains of stretched pizza dough in the air and using it to perform mind-blowing tricks. Seemingly defying gravity, the dough is thrown straight into the air in perfect circular disks. Some acrobats can rotate two pizzas at the same time.

It might seem like an unusual hobby, but throwing pizza is no joke. Like other competitive sports, it requires focus, coordination, physical strength, and—perhaps most importantly—practice. Lots of practice.

“It’s difficult. You need agility,” said Gemignani, who initially practiced turning the pizza wet beach towels, which he cut and sewed together to form a 16-inch circle. “It takes a bit of perseverance. You would be surprised.”

Also, he added, pizza dough is very fragile compared to typical juggling props, and its elasticity is affected by various factors beyond an acrobat’s control. Warm weather, for example, makes dough softer — and more prone to tearing in mid-air.

“It’s flexible, it can tear, it changes shape,” Gemignani said, explaining that acrobatics dough is different from regular pizza dough and is made with triple salt and special flour for longer shelf life. “It’s a little bit different every time you do it. The dough is always changing.”

However, the challenge is part of what attracts Gemignani to the sport. Over the years he has competed – and won – in many pizza acrobatics competitions, including the annual World Pizza Games in Las Vegas (which are part of the International Pizza Expo & Conference) and the Pizza World Championships in Parma, Italy – the largest pizza show of the world.

International pizza makers – or “pizzaiolos” – travel from far and wide to take part in the annual events.

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“Competitors fly in from all over the world and compete against each other,” said Gemignani, who was born in Fremont, California and has Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Native American roots.

The athletes, as they are called at the competitions, come from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Morocco, Sweden, France, India, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and of course Italy. They spend the whole year preparing and practicing their acrobatic performances.

The contests typically cost around $100 to enter, although many entrants are sponsored by companies in the industry. Winners occasionally take home cash prizes, but many competitions “are about bragging rights and medals,” Gemignani said.

While each competition has its own set of rules and protocols, competitors always choreograph their own three-minute routines, accompanied by music and performed in front of a live audience. A panel of experts then judges them based on a variety of factors including skill, difficulty, showmanship, dubbing and creativity. Points are deducted for dropped dough.

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“You shouldn’t drop it so much,” said Gemignani, who has started about 40 pizzerias across the country, including the famous Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in the heart of San Francisco’s Little Italy. “You have to go through with it and do your best.”

While pizza acrobatics is a niche sport, it’s actually somewhat conventional compared to other unusual competitions out there, including bee beard challenges, nail art contests, extreme ironing tournaments, and worm summoning championships.

Although Gemignani has performed “thousands of times”. As his career progresses, ‘I still get nervous’ he said, adding that in addition to competing, he has traveled the world – from London to Thailand – throwing pizzas at cancer camps, local festivals, sports games, talk shows, fundraisers and other gatherings large and small. He especially loves performing for children.

“It’s so rewarding,” said Gemignani, who has an 8-year-old son named Giovanni. In 2009, Gemignani published a children’s book about pizza acrobatics entitled Tony and the Pizza Champions.

Besides tricks with dough, Gemignani’s biggest passion is making pizza. He makes no distinctions when it comes to pizza style.

“I celebrate all kinds of pizza. I have every type of oven,” he said, adding that his new fast-casual franchise concept called “Slice House” offers five different pizza styles: Detroit, Granny, Sicilian, New York and California. There are also gluten free options.

“I could never get tired of pizza,” said Gemignani, who also teaches cooking classes, including at Maryland’s Pizza University & Culinary Arts Center. “I could eat it every day.”

In recent years, Gemignani has focused more on cooking than performing, although he’s still very involved in the pizza acrobatics scene. He helps organize the annual competitions in Las Vegas, and is the keynote speaker for the upcoming World Pizza Games taking place March 28-30 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

He has become a friend and mentor to many aspiring pizza artists, including Tara Hattan, 26, an award-winning acrobat from Tulsa. She struck six gold medals and was the first woman to win the World Pizza Games.

“I love the excitement,” said Hattan, co-owner of Zasa’s Pizza & Wings — with two locations in Tulsa. “My body takes control and I just throw batter.”

Like Gemignani, she started throwing pizza as a teenager while working at a pizza joint in Owasso, Oklahoma to earn some extra money. She learned several tricks on YouTube and quickly got the hang of it.

Hattan liked it so much that she eventually decided to drop out of college and pursue a full-time career in the pizza industry.

“It makes me happy,” Hattan said, adding that she credits much of her success to her pizza maker predecessors – including Gemignani – who have guided her along the way.

“All of them are just so experienced and so knowledgeable,” she said. “It’s so great to have people like that.”

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Although the competition can be fierce, the pizza thrower community is proud to support them. It may be a serious sport, but most competitors do it for fun.

At the end of the day, Gemignani said, pizza is one of the world’s most popular foods for a reason.

“Pizza always takes you back to a time when things in life were much simpler,” he said. “No stress, no politics. It’s all about eating good food and having a good time.”