Italy's men have arrived at Rio 2016 where they will playing the opening men's match
Rome, Italy, July 27, 2016 – Italy’s men’s volleyball team and their beach volleyball pairs have touched down in Brazil for the start of their Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games adventure on Wednesday. The women’s volleyball team will arrive on Thursday.
The team arrived at 4.15 local time and after passing through customs and passport control they then collected their accreditation and departed for the Olympic Village.
Gianlorenzo Blengini’s team will be out to improve upon the bronze medal they won at the London 2012 Olympic Games and their current squad contain a number of players from that team, notably Ivan Zaytsev.
Italy are in Pool A where they will take on hosts Brazil, 2015 FIVB World League winners France, Canada, Mexico and the USA. They have the honour of playing in the first match of the men’s draw on Sunday August 7, against France in a repeat of the 2016 World League bronze medal match that France won 3-0.
In beach volleyball Italy are represented by three teams at Copacabana Beach – Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai and Alex Ranghieri and Adrian Carambula in the men’s competition and Marta Menegatti and Viktoria Orsi Toth in the women’s.
Lupo and Nicolai are playing in their second Olympic Games. At London 2012 they knocked out defending champions Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser. Menegatti played alongside Greta Cicolari, but for Ranghieri, Carambula and Orsi Toth Rio 2016 marks their Olympic debuts.