Canada's women's senior national volleyball team lands a big name to lead the program.
Volleyball Canada announced Tuesday that Giovanni Guidetti will be the next head coach at the beginning of the international season.
Guidetti, 52, is arguably one of the most successful coaches in women's volleyball. The Italian-born coach has led clubs and national teams to remarkable success over the last two decades in his coaching career.
Guidetti has spent the past 16 years as head coach of Turkish club VakıfBank, where he established the club as one of the most dominant women's volleyball teams in the world, leading the club to five CEV Champions League titles, five FIVB Club World Championship gold medals, and seven Turkish League championships.
Under Guidetti's leadership, VakıfBank achieved a 73-match winning streak across all official domestic and international competitions, an official recognized Guinness World Record. In 2013, he led the team to a historic sweep of all five major championship titles, making VakıfBank the only club in volleyball history to achieve this milestone.
Beyond his success at the club level, he has also made a name for himself on the international stage with multiple national teams.
Most recently, Guidetti guided Serbia to a seventh-place finish at the Paris 2024 Olympics and a silver medal at the 2023 European Championship. Before that, he led Turkey's women's national team to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, where they reached the quarterfinals, and secured multiple podium finishes at the European Championships.
He began his international coaching career as an assistant coach for the Italian national team from 1997 to 2000, with the Sydney 2000 Olympics being his first Games. He then coached the Bulgarian team in 2003 and Germany for almost a decade (2006-15), securing multiple international medals for the Germans.
From 2015 to 2017, He coached Netherlands' national team and led the Dutch to a World Grand Prix bronze in 2016, a EuroVolley silver, and a fourth-place finish at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.Guidetti will take over from Shannon Winzer, who led Canada reaching a program-high world ranking of No. 8 and came just short of qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympics, Winzer will now transition to the role of High Performance Director.
"I have always admired and respected the way Canada plays volleyball and how much the team has improved in recent years," Guidetti said in a release Tuesday. "Reaching No. 8 in the world rankings is an amazing achievement and a great starting point as we set our sights on the Los Angeles Olympic Games."
"I believe Canada has top-level international players, and the younger generations are very promising. I am truly excited to begin this new journey."
Canada will open its international season on June 4 in Ottawa with the first week of the Volleyball Nations League.