Mirka Francia


Mirka Francia Vasconcelos is a Cuban-Italian volleyball player who has won two Olympic gold medals with the Cuba women's national volleyball team. At 1.84 meters tall, she played as a blocker before becoming a hitter in 2004.

Life and career

Born in Santa Clara, Cuba, Francia first played volleyball at age ten and joined the junior national team in Havana four years later. With the national team she won two gold medals, at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. She also played on the Cuban national team that won the FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship in 1994 and 1998.
In the 1998-1999 season she played for Romanelli Firenze in the Italian second division before joining Sirio Perugia for the following season. She skipped the 2000-2001 season because of pregnancy, but rejoined Sirio Perugia the next year. With the team she has won the Italian Championship three times and the Italian Cup two times, also winning the Women's CEV Champions League in 2006 and 2008 also being awarded "Best Spiker", and the 2007 CEV Cup when she was awarded "Best Scorer". She acquired Italian citizenship in 2004, but has declined to play for the Italy women's national volleyball team due to family matters.
For season 2008/2009 she started playing for the Turkish team Eczacibasi Istanbul. With this team she won the "Best Scorer" title for the Champions League regular season 2009 and the Best Spiker, Best Server and Top Scorer of the 2009 Turkish Championship.

Clubs

Individuals