Kronplatz / Plan de Corones, Italy, April 6, 2017. The 2016 Queen of the Snow is back! Italy’s Greta Cicolari will compete at the last stop of the 2017 CEV Snow Volleyball European Tour, which will take place in her home country this coming weekend.
In 2016, Cicolari and her partner Giulia Toti played at all three events on the European Tour and reached the women’s final at every single one of them. Finally, at the last stop in Kronplatz / Plan de Corones they claimed the gold and, topping the season’s rankings, were crowned the first Queens of the Snow on the CEV circuit.
However, for Greta Cicolari, Kronplatz will be the first and the last participation on the snow for the 2017 season, so she has no chances or ambitions to defend her crown, and says she will be playing for fun.
“But you know me - when I take to the court, I change completely and I fight to win,” she says with a smile. “I wish I could have participated in the whole Tour this year as well, but you really need a sponsor or a federation to support you for that. Kronplatz is just a couple of hours away from where I live, so I took this opportunity to do one stop just for fun. Honestly, I am not sure how we can do in that last stage of the Tour, because some other teams will be fighting for the final title and we are just there for the fun of it.”
“You want to know a secret?” Greta continues. “After last year’s Snow
Volleyball European Tour I went skiing a few times already this year and
I really fell in love with all the fun there. So bringing together both
the game of Volleyball and the unique atmosphere of the mountains is
just great for me.”
This year Greta Cicolari will be teaming up with Alice Francesca
Bertolaso, the responsible of Paradise Beach, an indoor structure for
Beach Volleyball near Milan, where the 2011 Beach Volleyball European
champion and 2012 Olympian launched her Beach Volleyball school Bits.
Cicolari/Bertolaso are one of the 13 pairs registered to play in the
women’s tournament in Kronplatz.
“The European Tour is growing,” Cicolari continues her comments. “I am happy that I have participated in the first ever CEV Snow Volleyball tournament. It is not a secret that I could not compete for a couple of years, so when I came back, I wanted to play in any competition possible to show my passion for Volleyball and to show that I am athletically at my max. That is how I ended up winning the 2015 Italian National Championship in Beach Volleyball and then, in 2016, the first ever CEV European Tour on the snow. I hope the sport of Snow Volleyball will be treated more and more the same way Beach Volleyball is, and that the federations from all over the world will believe in it and support it more and more every year. I always wanted to represent my country with pride and if I am called by the new people responsible for Italian women’s Beach Volleyball, I will tell them about my experience on the snow. I want to help the sport grow and become a part of the Winter Olympic Games!”
For further information on the European Tour, click here or visit SnowVolleyball.com.