The Italian women’s national volleyball team won its first Olympic gold medal on Sunday after beating the United States 3 sets to 0: 25-18, 25-20, 25-17.
It was the 12th gold for Italy at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, and overall medal No. 40 – the same number as Tokyo 2020 (where, however, there were only 10 golds) -, helping the Italian delegation bypass Germany’s in 9th place of the medal table.
Sunday’s victory marked the first time that Italian volleyball stands on the highest step of the Olympic podium. The achievement had eluded even the men’s “phenomena generation” led by Julio Velasco (now leading the women’s team), which used to dominate the world stage in the 1990s but had to settle for silver at the 1996 Atlanta games.
Signing the feat was an extraordinary Paola Egonu, as well as also the other opposing player, Ekaterina Antropova. And then Anna Danesi, Sarah Fahr, Caterina Bosetti and Myriam Sylla, as well as “libero” Monica De Gennaro and Alessia Orro.
