Sara Cirelli called it “fire.” The Italian attacker brought plenty of it as she led Italy to their first-ever world-level medal, a historic bronze at the 2025 World ParaVolley Sitting Volleyball World Cup in Fort Wayne.
After scoring 21 points in the 3–1 victory over Canada, Cirelli could not hide her emotion. It was the end of a long season that had already seen Italy crowned European champions, and she said the team had entered the World Cup with limited preparation but full belief.
“I am so, so, so happy because this season, I would say it was long. It was very long,” Cirelli said after Italy’s 3–1 win over Canada in the bronze-medal match. “We won the European Championship, and we arrived here with not a lot of practice because we stopped, like all the August. And we just had one training camp before this competition and we felt like a bit uncomfortable. But we deserved this medal and I’m so, so happy that I played good and we played good all 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, coming seven years after their bronze-medal match appearance at the 2018 World Championship.
“It’s exciting, it’s exciting. I’m so happy,” she said. “It’s like seven years that we are playing together mostly, and it’s our first time. We did a bronze medal match in the World Championship in 2018. It is far away, so it’s like after seven years. So yeah, it’s incredible. I’m so happy because we played good and we did what we are able to do and we showed on the court and it was amazing.”
Earlier in the tournament, Italy had lost to Canada in the preliminary round, which made the rematch for bronze as much a mental test as a tactical one.
“We lost the first game against them in the pool because we were nervous. I would say this is mostly the reason we were not able to play,” Cirelli said. “They improved a lot compared to us, and because we played in July against them and they improved amazingly. So we were like, oh my God, they are good, they can beat us. And they did it. And we just said to us yesterday that we needed to do what we are able to do, just serve good. They are very good servers, so we just said, okay, we are going to have aces, but we don’t care. We need to do to them aces too. So just relax and play free and we can do it. And we did it.”
Her personal approach to the match 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 I can, because it’s one of my skills and I am doing good in this tournament, so I’m happy,” she said. “And of course try to score, to bring energy and positive like into the match and for my teammates.”
That attitude carried Italy through the early stages when they struggled to find rhythm. Cirelli admitted the first set was difficult, but once she and her teammates settled into their play, everything began to flow naturally.
“We were confident,” she recalled. “We said, just be calm, just receive the ball and play our game. We are not so good in receiving, we know this, so we are going to make mistakes. Don’t care. Just go ahead, think about the next point. Be calm. Don’t get nervous because we are getting easily nervous sometimes and this is like the worse for us because we can’t play nervous of course. And we do mistakes. I think we were a bit nervous in the first set. I was, I was very nervous with the first set, but I broke the ice, I would say, and we started to play good from the second set and we just did what we can do and what we supposed to do.”
The win was not only 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 calm under pressure was what finally pushed them to a world medal.
“I’m so happy because we played good and we did what we are able to do,” she said. “It was amazing.”