Ekaterina Gamova On Her Unsuccessful Return

We really waited for this moment to happen.

2006 and 2010 World Champion Ekaterina Gamova has finally released a statement in regards to her disappointing return with the Russian National Team at the recently concluded FIVB Women’s World Championship.

In case you didn’t know, Russia finished 5th.

Last October 11th, the 2010 World Championship MVP posted this on her Facebook account:

Друзья, спасибо вам всем за поддержку! С теплом у сердца читала ваши пожелания победы и слова надежды. Возможно мое решение вернуться в августе в команду было скоропалительным. У меня были опасения, что за такой короткий период времени я не смогу выйти на на свой уровень физической формы, но мое желание помочь сборной и стране было велико! К сожалению реальность диктует свое. Еще раз хочу сказать спасибо нашей команде и всему стафу. Спасибо вам мои друзья – болельщики. Впереди клубный сезон, Лига Чемпионов и много красивого волейбола! Болейте за нас и красивую игру! Борьба продолжается)))!!!

English Translation:

“Friends, thank you for your support. Perhaps I made a hasty decision last August to return to the National Team for the World Championship. I feared that I won’t be able to reach the necessary level of fitness in such a short time, but my desire to help the team and country was too strong. Once again I want to thank to all girls from the team and to the whole staff. We are now in front of the new club season and many beautiful volleyball matches. Cheer for us and this beautiful game. The fight continues.”

In all fairness to Gamova, it takes one great and true athlete to do such thing.

Katya, you will forever remain as one of the greatest players the world has ever seen. We hope that the World Champs will not be your last tournament. We want to see you with Russia at the 2016 Games and give your dream to win Olympic gold another shot.

We’d like to add this quote from Coach Karpol about Gamova published by ITAR-TASS:

“I think that Gamova still has great potential. With proper commitment, she will once again be in excellent shape. Of course, I refer to the Olympic Games in Rio if she decides to play there. We have a great selection of players and we should only aim for the highest goals. Players need to understand that they should not think about clubs when playing for the National Team. It is now necessary to analyze the tournament and reach some conclusions.”

Thoughts?

(images: FIVB)