Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, After eight months on the sidelines, Brazilian Beach Volleyball player Juliana Felisberta Silva is ready to return. The player, who damaged cruciate ligaments in her right knee during the 2008 SWATCH FIVB World Tour Grand Slam in Paris last June, has completely recovered and will team up with Larissa Franca again during the third stop of the Brazilian Banco do Brasil Tour the weekend of March 21-22 in Curitiba. “It will be like restarting. I know that everything will be different now. I am very happy to be playing again after such a long time. I am totally healed as the evaluations showed and I feel very well,” said Juliana. “Now it is just about playing and being happy. I miss the competition’s atmosphere but I think I will just feel that adrenalin again when putting the top on to play the first match of the tournament.” The injury ruled Juliana out of the Beijing Olympic Games in August after she and Larissa had already qualified for the competition. Without her regular partner, Larissa teamed up with Ana Paula Connelly in Beijing and finished fifth.
“When playing, we are so worried about the results of the matches that sometimes we cannot realize that these are the moments when we are doing the thing we like best in our lives: playing Volleyball.” Juliana and Larissa have been a supremely successful pairing but for now their aspirations for more medals are on the backburner as they slowly but surely regain their spark together. “We know about the strength of our team, but it is not time to set goals. The most important thing is to play without pain and acquire match rhythm again,” said Juliana. | |
