Ekaterina Gamova came back to the national team after retiring in 2012
Verona, Italy, September 22, 2014 – Retiring after the Olympic Games in London in 2012 was not the end of Ekaterina Gamova’s career at world stage, as the Russian star player arrived in Verona on Sunday night with the national team to compete in her fourth World Championship.
It only took coach Yuri Macharev to call her from her retirement, and she agreed to be back.
“I still play in the club (Dinamo-Kazan), physically I feel good and ready, so I decided to come back. I am happy to be here,” she said after Russia’s first training at PalaOlimpia on Monday.
“It was not a difficult decision to make. I felt I still wanted to play for Russia and I was sure I still had something to give to the national team.”
Gamova, who was named Most Valuable Player in 2010, said her contribution will be “to help the team try to win gold”, as Russia enters the FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship Italy 2014 as favourite.
If they did, this would be Russia’s third win in a row after clinching gold in 2006 and 2010.
“We are favourite, but not the only favourite, because there are many other strong teams and with this format every match is important. We don’t feel pressure, but we trained hard to get here and all we want is to start playing,” Gamova said .
The most feared opponents for the Russians are USA and the Netherlands, in the first round.
“The Netherlands are a good team and a young team that can be difficult for us and surprise,” Gamova said.
“The second round is going to be very hard, but this is nothing new to us as all the strong ones will be in our group,” she added.