Ekaterina Gamova won the MVP award at the FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship 2010
Lausanne, Switzerland, May 18, 2016 – Two-time world champion and Olympic silver medallist Russia’s Ekaterina Gamova has announced her retirement from volleyball.
The 35-year-old opposite has had a decorated career which includes an MVP award at the FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship 2010 and FIVB Volleyball Women’s Club World Championship 2014 as well as gold medals at the 2006 and 2010 World Championships and silver medals at the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Olympic Games.
She also celebrated success in the FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix, helping Russia win the tournament in 1999 and 2002 as well as two European Championships in 1999 and 2001.
"I would like to thank all the fans, coaches who participated in development of me as an athlete, my family who has always supported me," she said on Wednesday. "I can’t take part in the Olympics due to a health condition. The decision was made in the last couple of days. There was a talk with a coach about it. That was a tough decision, but I believe it’s the only right for me right now because I thought it through. It has been also long discussed whether or not should I take part in pre-Olympic preparation sessions. There was a coach counsel. For the coach it was also a tough decision to make."
It is not the first time the veteran has stepped away from the national team. Gamova took a hiatus from the side following the London 2012 Olympic Games, citing tiredness as one of the driving factors. However, on that occasion she left the door open for a return, which is not the case this time around.
Gamova was introduced to volleyball by her mother, grandmother and an aunt in a volleyball family when she was 9-year old in her home town of Chelyabinsk. When she was 14 she joined local club Metar where she began her outstanding professional career. In 1998 she moved to the well-known Uralochka club in Ekaterinburg (former Sverdlovsk) and just a year later she received a national team call-up.