Taismary Agüero Leiva (born March 5, 1977) is a Cuban-born Italian volleyball player. She is the only player to represent two women's volleyball national team to win Major titles (1995 FIVB World Cup, 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, 1998 FIVB World Championship, 1999 FIVB World Cup and 2000 Sydney Olympic Games for Cuba; 2007 FIVB World Cup for Italy).

Life

Born in

Yaguajay Yaguajay () is a municipality and town in the Sancti Spíritus Province of Cuba. It is located in the northern part of the province, and borders the Bay of Buena Vista to the north. The Caguanes National Park (protecting swamp and coastal ecosyst ...

in the province of Sancti Spiritus, when she began to play volleyball when she was eight years old. Two years later, she entered in the Cerro Pelado Training Center in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

. In 1993 she won the junior women's volleyball world championship and then joined the senior national team. She did not participate in the 1994 FIVB Women's World Championship, but she won the gold medal at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

two years later. In 1998 together with

Mireya Luis Alejandrina Mireya Luis Hernández, often referred to as Mireya (born August 25, 1967 in Camagüey) is a retired Cuban volleyball player. Life At the age of 10 she started playing volleyball. At 16, Mireya joined the Cuban national team for th ...

Regla Bell Regla Maritza Bell MacKenzie (July 6, 1970 in Havana) is a volleyball player from Cuba who won the gold medal three times at the Olympic Games from 1992–2000, and the World Championship in 1998 with the Cuban national team. Career She won thre ...

, Ana Ibis Fernandez, and

Mirka Francia Mirka Francia Vasconcelos (born 14 February 1975, in Villa Clara) is a Cuban-Italian volleyball player who has won two Olympic gold medals with the Cuba women's national volleyball team. At 1.84 meters (6 ft) tall, she played as a blocker be ...

she won the

1998 FIVB Women's World Championship The 1998 FIVB Women's World Championship was the thirteenth edition of the tournament, organised by the world's governing body, the FIVB. It was held from 3 to 12 November 1998 in Tokyo, Tokuyama, Matsumoto, Kagoshima, Nagoya, Fukuoka, and Osaka ...

in Japan. In 2000, she was a member of the Cuban Woman volleyball national team that won the gold medal at the

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. In the summer 2001, she left the Cuban National Team during a tournament in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and applied for

political asylum The right of asylum (sometimes called right of political asylum; ) is an ancient juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, like a second country or another enti ...

in Italy . The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) allowed her to play in Italy despite the opposition of Cuban volleyball federation and she joined Pallavolo Sirio Perugia, an Italian volleyball club, where she had just played before during the 1998–1999 and 1999–2000 seasons. At the end of 2006 she became an Italian citizen after marrying Alessio Botteghi an Italian physiotherapist who works for the Turkish National Women Volleyball team. In the summer of 2007 she joined the Italian national team.

Career

Agüero had played for two seasons for Sirio Perugia from 1998 to 2000 then she played again for Sirio from 2001 to 2005. From 2005 to 2007 she has played for Asystel Novara. In season 2007/2008 she played for

Türk Telekom Türk Telekom is a state-owned Turkish telecommunications company. Türk Telekom was separated from Turkish Post (PTT) in 1995. Türk Telekom Group provides integrated telecommunication services for PSTN, GSM, and wide-band Internet. The Türk ...

club in

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

, in season 2009/2010 she will play for Carnaghi Villa Cortese team in the Italian League. Now Agüero both in club and in national team played as right hitters, while with the Cuban national teams she was setter/hitter.

Titles

In the 1993 junior championship she was named MVP, Best Setter and best server. In 1995 and 1997 she won the Panamerican games with

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

, and, in 1996 and 2000, the Summer Olympic Games. She was Italian national champion in 2002/2003 and 2004/2005. Playing for Italy, she won the 2007 European Championship, where she was also declared Most Valuable Player, she has also won the gold medal at 2009 European volleyball Championship

Clubs

* Sirio Perugia (1998–2005) * Asystel Novara (2005–2007) * Türk Telekom Ankara (2007–2009) * Carnaghi Villa Cortese (2009–2011) *

Universal Volley Modena Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a t ...

(2011–2013) * Pomi Casalmaggiore (2013-2014) *

Volley 2002 Forlì Volley or Volly may refer to: People * Volly De Faut (1904–1973), American jazz reed player * Paul Volley (born 1971), English rugby union player Sports *Volley (association football), an air-borne strike in association football *In some racke ...

(2014–2016) * Canovi Sassuolo (2016-2018) * Emilbronzo 2000 Montale (2018-)

Awards

Individuals

* '' 1999 FIVB World Cup "Most Valuable Player"'' * '' 1999 FIVB World Cup "Best Server"'' * '' 2007 FIVB World Grand Prix "Best Spiker"'' * '' 2007 FIVB World Grand Prix "Best Scorer"'' * '' 2007 European Championship "Most Valuable Player"''

External links

Official websiteFIVB Profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aguero, Taimarys 1977 births Living people People from Yaguajay Cuban women's volleyball players Wing spikers Italian women's volleyball players Cuban emigrants to Italy Naturalised citizens of Italy Defecting sportspeople of Cuba Türk Telekom volleyballers Italian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate volleyball players in Turkey Olympic medalists in volleyball Olympic gold medalists for Cuba Olympic volleyball players of Cuba Olympic volleyball players of Italy Volleyball players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Volleyball players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Volleyball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Mediterranean Games medalists in volleyball Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Italy Competitors at the 2009 Mediterranean Games Pan American Games medalists in volleyball Pan American Games silver medalists for Cuba Medalists at the 1999 Pan American Games