International women’s volleyball is coming to the Richmond Olympic Oval this summer.
Canada will be hosting Germany, Peru and Czech Republic, from July 21-23, as part of the Group 2 action in the 2017 FIVB World Grand Prix.
The Oval became the new home for the women’s national team’s Full-Time Training Centre (FTC) after the program re-located to Richmond from Winnipeg in January. It was already hosting the Volleyball Canada Centre of Excellence which helped train more than 50 athletes who have played for their province, junior national team or post-secondary school.
The purpose of the FTC is to enhance the long-term objective of identifying, selecting and developing a group of athletes with ability or potential for qualifying for the 2020 Olympics as well as performing well in the 2017-2020 quadrennial. The goal for FTC is to have a minimum of six identified athletes participating in FTC while it is in place.
Other “A” team athletes are currently playing professionally in Europe and will join the FTC group in May for national team tryouts.
In February, national team head coach Marcello Abbondanza announced Vincenzo Mallia and Daniele Alpi will serve as his assistant coaches, while current Simon Fraser head coach Gina Schmidt will oversee the national “B” team.
Canada will be competing in the FIVB World Grand Prix for the fourth time since first joining the competition in 2014 and ranking 19th, 18th and 19th in previous appearances.
