For the Brazilian public, one of the most remembered images of Tokyo 2020 It’s from volleyballthat of the setter Roberta Ratzke looking and treating with affection the silver medal he had just received. It was the beginning of a new cycle not only for that team, but also for this Curitiba native, who was leaving to play outside the country for the first time, at LKS Lodz, in Poland.
After three seasons in Europe, Roberta recently ended his relationship with the Polish team and is looking forward to the start of the calendar with the national teams, with the VNL (acronym in English for Volleyball Nations League – Volleyball Nations League) and Paris 2024 ahead.
Given the work he will have to do to be part of a select squad, Olympics.com spoke to Roberta Ratzke for the 27th episode of Olympic Games podcast (listen here on spotify). A kind of warm-up for these two important competitions. A chat lasting almost 50 minutes in which we have separated some excerpts below. Check out.
It’s the Olympic year, the championships are the same, but the energy is different, the preparation is different. I think the players, in that fight to be in the best possible shape, to fight for a place. Zé Roberto [José Roberto Guimarães] having his problems with the coaching staff to understand what they are going to do in the best way for the country, anyway. But it’s obvious that we don’t skip stages, so playing the VNL we’ll want to look for the podium. We are looking for this gold medal and also to continue on the podium, in the past we were left out. I think it’s preparation for the Olympics, yes, but without “overstepping” the stages. I think that playing the VNL we have to have our head in the VNL to get the best results we can.
When reflecting on Brazil at VNL in 2024,
