Sara Cirelli called it “fire.” The Italian forward brought a lot of that with her as she led Italy to their first-ever medal at world level, a historic bronze at the 2025 World ParaVolley Sitting Volleyball World Cup in Fort Wayne.
After scoring 21 points in the 3-1 win over Canada, Cirelli couldn’t hide her emotion. It was the end of a long season in which Italy had already been crowned European champions, and she said the team had gone into the World Cup with limited preparation but full of confidence.
“I’m so, so, so happy because this season I would say it’s been a long time. It’s been very long,” Cirelli said after Italy’s 3-1 victory over Canada in the bronze medal match. “We won the European Championship and we arrived here without much practice because we stopped, like the whole month of August. And we only had one training camp before this match and we felt a little bit uncomfortable. But we deserved this medal and I’m so happy that I played well and that we all played well together.”
Cirelli’s 21 points helped Italy recover from a slow start to beat Canada 3–1 (24–26, 25–20, 25–13, 25–18) at the Turnstone Center. The result marked Italy’s first podium finish at a world-level sitting volleyball event, seven years after their bronze medal match at the 2018 World Championship.
“It’s exciting, it’s exciting. I’m so happy,” she said. “It’s like seven years that we’ve been playing together for the most part, and it’s our first time. We played a bronze medal match at the World Championship in 2018. It’s far away, so it’s like after seven years. So yeah, it’s incredible. I’m so happy because we played well and we did what we could and we showed it on the field and it was great.”
Earlier in the tournament, Italy had lost to Canada in the preliminary round, making the rematch for bronze both a mental and tactical test.
“We lost the first game against them in the group because we were nervous. I would say that’s mainly the reason we couldn’t play,” Cirelli said. “They’ve gotten a lot better compared to us, and because we played them in July and they improved amazingly. So we were like, oh my God, they’re good, they can beat us. And they did that. And they told us yesterday to do what we can, just serve well. They’re really good servers, so we just said, okay, we’re going to have aces, but we don’t care. We have to do aces with them too. relax and play freely and we can do it. it. And we did it.”
Her personal approach to the competition was simple but fierce.
“My goal for this match was to bring my fire and my energy into the match and block as much as possible because it is one of my skills and I am doing well in this tournament so I am happy,” she said. “And of course trying to score, bringing energy and positivity to the game and to my teammates.”
That attitude led Italy through the initial phase when the country struggled to find rhythm. Cirelli admitted that the first set was difficult, but once she and her teammates got into their game, everything started to flow naturally.
“We were confident,” she recalls. “We said, just be calm, just receive the ball and play our game. We’re not very good at receiving, we know that, so we’re going to make mistakes. It doesn’t matter. Go ahead, think about the next point. Be calm. Don’t get nervous because sometimes we get nervous easily and this is the worst for us because of course we can’t play nervous. And we make mistakes. I think we were a bit nervous in the first set. I was very nervous in the first set. first set, but I would say we broke the ice, and from the second set we started playing well and just did what we could and what we had to do.”
The win wasn’t just about tactics or momentum. It was the product of years of shared experiences, of players growing together through triumphs and disappointments. Cirelli said the team’s ability to stay united and find composure under pressure ultimately pushed them to a world medal.
“I’m so happy because we played well and did what we could,” she said. “It was great.”
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