Volleyball
Eleonora Lo Bianco announces retirement from competitive sport
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Article Sat, Apr 6 2019
Luxembourg, April 6, 2019. World and European champion Eleonora Lo Bianco announced on Friday via Facebook her retirement from competitive sport – and, at the same time, she revealed that she is currently pregnant with her first child. Lo Bianco, one of the best setters in Volleyball history, will now focus on starting a family, even though she did not rule out a comeback to Volleyball in a different role.
“I never quite liked goodbyes, but time has come to write a few lines for myself, for Volleyball, for those who love this sport and who have always followed me,” Lo Bianco wrote in an emotional Facebook post.
She recalled that she has been on a sort of stand-by, without a team, since the beginning of the 2018-2019 season, waiting on an offer that she eventually did not get from anywhere. “It was the first time in more than 25 years that I found myself without a team, without teammates with whom to share every day and every training session, without a competition to play and the adrenaline that goes with every match. At the end of the last season I was pretty sure that I wanted to play for one more year, especially since last year was not quite up to my expectations and because I could not see myself living without Volleyball,” she continued.
The first few lines of the Facebook post Lo Bianco has written to announce her retirement from competitive sport.
She spent the last few months waiting for a call and feeling a bit down because she could hardly accept that her career would finish this way. “However, the kind of news you would never expect reached me! I will become a mother. Everything suddenly changed, the way you see life and Volleyball as well,” she wrote. “This made me understand that it was about time to say goodbye.”
Lo Bianco, a multiple winner of the CEV Champions League, a world champion (in 2002) and two-time European champion (in 2007 and 2009), has totalled as many as 548 caps with the Italian national team. “I have won a lot, maybe not everything I wanted, but enough to be happy and to finish my career without any regrets. I recently joined the Italian Volleyball Hall of Fame, a privilege only a few receive, and I think this was the perfect way to seal a great career,” she continued.
“I would like to thank all those who have followed, supported and loved me, but also the players and the clubs that have welcomed me and allowed me to train every day at the highest level. I will forever cherish my experience with the Italian national team as well as the many teammates I have been lucky enough to play with, sharing joyful and sad moments. I would like to thank the media and all fans and finally, my family, because without their continuous support I would have never started and continued with Volleyball,” she added. “I will be missing Volleyball a lot but this is a goodbye, because you never know what the future brings. For now, I will focus on my growing belly, with all of the emotions and the joy that go with this moment. Ciao a tutti! Leo”
“I never quite liked goodbyes, but time has come to write a few lines for myself, for Volleyball, for those who love this sport and who have always followed me,” Lo Bianco wrote in an emotional Facebook post.
She recalled that she has been on a sort of stand-by, without a team, since the beginning of the 2018-2019 season, waiting on an offer that she eventually did not get from anywhere. “It was the first time in more than 25 years that I found myself without a team, without teammates with whom to share every day and every training session, without a competition to play and the adrenaline that goes with every match. At the end of the last season I was pretty sure that I wanted to play for one more year, especially since last year was not quite up to my expectations and because I could not see myself living without Volleyball,” she continued.
The first few lines of the Facebook post Lo Bianco has written to announce her retirement from competitive sport.
She spent the last few months waiting for a call and feeling a bit down because she could hardly accept that her career would finish this way. “However, the kind of news you would never expect reached me! I will become a mother. Everything suddenly changed, the way you see life and Volleyball as well,” she wrote. “This made me understand that it was about time to say goodbye.”
Lo Bianco, a multiple winner of the CEV Champions League, a world champion (in 2002) and two-time European champion (in 2007 and 2009), has totalled as many as 548 caps with the Italian national team. “I have won a lot, maybe not everything I wanted, but enough to be happy and to finish my career without any regrets. I recently joined the Italian Volleyball Hall of Fame, a privilege only a few receive, and I think this was the perfect way to seal a great career,” she continued.
“I would like to thank all those who have followed, supported and loved me, but also the players and the clubs that have welcomed me and allowed me to train every day at the highest level. I will forever cherish my experience with the Italian national team as well as the many teammates I have been lucky enough to play with, sharing joyful and sad moments. I would like to thank the media and all fans and finally, my family, because without their continuous support I would have never started and continued with Volleyball,” she added. “I will be missing Volleyball a lot but this is a goodbye, because you never know what the future brings. For now, I will focus on my growing belly, with all of the emotions and the joy that go with this moment. Ciao a tutti! Leo”