Paola Ogechi Egonu (born 18 December 1998) is an Italian

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

player. She plays for Turkish volleyball club

VakıfBank S.K. VakıfBank is the second largest bank in Turkey in terms of asset size, established with an initial capital of TL 50 million on January 11, 1954 and later started operating on April 13, 1954. Abdi Serdar Üstünsalih has been selected as the CEO ...

and was part of the Italy women's national volleyball team until 2022 when she is considering leaving from the team allegedly due to racism. She participated at the

2018 Montreux Volley Masters The 2018 Montreux Volley Masters is the 33rd edition of the women's volleyball competition set in Montreux, Switzerland. Participating teams Squads Group stage The first 2 teams of each group qualify for the final round. *''All times are Cent ...

, 2018 FIVB Volleyball World Championship, and

2018 FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League The 2018 FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League was the inaugural edition of the FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League, a new annual international women's volleyball tournament contested by 16 national teams that replaced the former World Gran ...

. On club level she played for Club Italia in 2015. She was selected to play the Italian League All-Star game in 2017. In 2017 she moved to AGIL Novara. She was awarded the prize for Woman of the Year 2019 by ''D - la Repubblica delle donne'', a weekly magazine of ''

la Repubblica ''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo and Arnol ...

''. She was one of the flagbearers of the

Olympic Flag The International Olympic Committee (IOC) uses icons, flags and symbols to elevate the Olympic Games. These symbols include those commonly used during Olympic competition—such as the flame, fanfare and theme—as well as those used throughout ...

at the

2020 Summer Games The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

in Tokyo.

Personal life

Egonu was born in

Cittadella Cittadella ( vec, Sitadeła) is a medieval walled city in the province of Padua, northern Italy, founded in the 13th century as a military outpost of Padua. The surrounding wall has been restored and is in circumference with a diameter of around ...

, in

Veneto it, Veneto (man) it, Veneta (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = ...

, to Nigerian parents. Her father, Ambrose, is

Igbo Igbo may refer to: * Igbo people, an ethnic group of Nigeria * Igbo language, their language * anything related to Igboland, a cultural region in Nigeria See also * Ibo (disambiguation) * Igbo mythology * Igbo music * Igbo art * * Igbo-Ukwu, a ...

from Imo State and her mother, Eunice, from Benin City. She has two siblings, Angela and Andrea. Her cousin Terry Enweonwu is a volleyball player as well. In November 2018, in an interview for the Corriere della Sera, she

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

, revealing to have a girlfriend that comforted her after the defeat at the

2018 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship The 2018 FIVB Women's World Championship was the eighteenth edition of the event, contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of the ' (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. The final tournament was held in Japan from 29 Sep ...

. Later on, her girlfriend's name was revealed: she is the volleyball player Katarzyna Skorupa. In 2020, she dubbed the character Dreamerwind (italian: ''Sognaluna Dibrezza''), originally voiced by

Cathy Cavadini Catherine Janet Cavadini is an American voice actress. She is most well known as the original voice of Blossom on Cartoon Network's animated television series ''The Powerpuff Girls'', and as and Tanya Mousekewitz in '' An American Tail: Fieve ...

, for the italian version of the animation movie

Soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest atte ...

, produced by

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

and

Pixar Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californ ...

. In the season 2020-2021, she co-presented the italian show ''

Le Iene ''Le Iene'' (; , but referencing the Italian name of Quentin Tarantino's 1992 movie ''Reservoir Dogs'') is an Italian television program. The program ''Le Iene'' is a television program broadcast on the Italian channel Italia 1. Beginning in 1997, ...

''. After the conclusion of the 2022 FIVB World Championship, Egonu was captured on video telling her manager "This is my last game with the national team.”, following the bronze medal match against the United States, leading to speculation that she was quitting the team. She later confirmed these reports, stating she is considering taking an indefinite pause from the team due to persistent racism she faces.

Awards

Clubs

* 2017 Italian Supercup - Simple cup icon

Champion, with Igor Gorgonzola Novara * 2017-18 Italian Cup (Coppa Italia) - Simple cup icon

Champion, with Igor Gorgonzola Novara * 2018-19 Italian Cup (Coppa Italia) - Simple cup icon

Champion, with Igor Gorgonzola Novara * 2018–19 CEV Women's Champions League - Simple cup icon

Champion, with AGIL Novara * 2019 Italian Supercup - Simple cup icon

Champion, with

Imoco Volley Conegliano Imoco Volley is an Italian women's volleyball club based in Conegliano and currently playing in the Serie A1. History The club was founded on 15 March 2012, two months after the bankruptcy of the other volleyball team in Conegliano. In April 2 ...

* 2019 FIVB Volleyball Women's Club World Championship - Simple cup icon

Champion, with

* 2019-20 Italian Cup (Coppa Italia) - Simple cup icon

Champion, with

* 2020 Italian Supercup - Simple cup icon

Champions, with

* 2020-21 Italian Cup (Coppa Italia) - Simple cup icon

Champion, with

* 2020–21 Italian League - Simple cup icon

Champion, with

* 2020–21

CEV Women's Champions League The Women's CEV Champions League, formerly known as CEV Champions Cup (from 1960 to 2000), is the top official competition for women's volleyball clubs of Europe and takes place every year. It is organized by the Confédération Européenne de V ...

Champion, with

* 2021 Italian Supercup - Simple cup icon

Champions, with

* 2021-22 Italian Cup (Coppa Italia) - Simple cup icon

Champion, with

* 2021–22 Italian League - Simple cup icon

Champion, with

Individuals

* 2015 U18 World Championship MVP * 2015 U18 World Championship Best Outside Spiker * '' 2016 Europe Olympic Qualification Tournament "Best Outside Spiker"'' * ''2016–17 Italian League "Top Scorer"'' * ''2017-18 Italian Cup (Coppa Italia) "Most Valuable Player"'' * '' 2018 Montreux Volley Masters "Most Valuable Player"'' * '' 2018 FIVB World Championship "Best Opposite Hitters"'' * '' CEV Champions League 2018–19 "Most Valuable Player"'' * ''2018–19 Italian League "Top Scorer"'' * ''2019 Italian Supercup "Most Valuable Player"'' * '' 2019 FIVB Volleyball Women's Club World Championship "Most Valuable Player"'' * ''2020-21 Italian Cup (Coppa Italia) "Most Valuable Player"'' * ''2020–21 Italian League "Most Valuable Player"'' * '' CEV Champions League 2020–21 "Most Valuable Player"'' * '' CEV EuroVolley 2021 "Most Valuable Player"'' * ''2021 European Volleyball Confederation "Female Volleyball Player of the Year 2021"'' * ''2021–22 Italian League "Most Valuable Player"'' * ''2021-22 Italian Cup (Coppa Italia) "Most Valuable Player"'' * ''2021–22 Italian League "Top Scorer"'' * '' 2022 FIVB Nations League - "Best Opposite Hitter"'' * '' 2022 FIVB Nations League - "Most Valuable Player"''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Egonu, Paola 1998 births Living people Italian women's volleyball players Italian people of Nigerian descent Italian sportspeople of African descent Sportspeople of Nigerian descent People from Cittadella Volleyball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic volleyball players of Italy LGBT sportspeople from Italy Bisexual women LGBT volleyball players Serie A1 (women's volleyball) players Volleyball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from the Province of Padua VakıfBank S.K. volleyballers Italian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate volleyball players in Turkey