Young and talented player of Russian origin, Ekaterina Antropova, set off the new episode of her battle of obtaining the sports nationality of Italy.
Despite the fact that media in Italy reported in May that a teenage sensation Antropova was granted an Italian sports nationality, the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) ruled out differently. The agency that looks after the interests of the 19-year-player announced that her sporting story to become recognized as Italian in terms of her sports right continued with the next appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS – an autonomous body recognized by the International Olympic Committee to which legal, regulatory and financial disputes relating to the sport are entrusted) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
In the last sporting season, the European Volleyball Confederation (CEV) had transformed the Savino Del Bene Scandicci opposite hitter from Italian to Russian, despite the written declarations by the Russian federation that Antropova had never been registered in Russia.