Manuela Secolo

Manuela Secolo was an Italian volleyball spiker who began her career in the 1991/92 season with Albatros Volley of Treviso in Serie B1. She continued playing in lower leagues with Polisportiva Mogliano, Ages Volley San Donà, Forlimpopoli, Olimpia Ravenna and Robursport Pesaro, with whom she won the Cadet Series Italian Cup. It was not until the 2003/04 season, when she joined Bergamo, that Secolo made her Serie A début. In four seasons with Bergamo, she won two championships, the Italian Cup, Italian Super Cup, CEV Cup, and two Champions’ League titles (2005 and 2007).

Secolo moved to Chieri in the 2007/08 season before playing abroad for a season with Olympiakos of Greece. She returned to Italy in 2009/10 and won the Italian Cup again, this time with Villa Cortese. In 2010/11 she wore the vest of the newly promoted Universal Modena, before another move, to Crema, and in 2012/13 she won the Championship and Italian Cup with River, of Piacenza. She stayed in Piacenza the following season, playing with Piacentina in Serie B1.

Between 2004-09 Secolo won 76 Italian caps. In addition to competing in two Olympics, she won a gold medal at the 2007 European and World Championships, and also a bronze medal in the World Grand Prix that year. She repeated the Grand Prix bronze medal the following year and in 2009 won the European gold medal again, as well as winning gold at the Mediterranean Games in Pescara, Secolo retired from competitive volleyball at the end of the 2013/14 season and, in January 2016, she and her basketball-player husband Andrea Bianchi had a daughter, Matilda.