The Olympics recalled the Peruvian volleyball team’s epic point in Montreal in 1976

47 years have passed and still all we remember with gratitude the glory of national volleyball. However, Peruvians are not the only ones to remember those years when the volleyball team’s participation in the Olympic Games It was not only common, we also managed to keep up with the other teams that were the world power and fought for a spot on the Olympic podium.

During the Montreal Olympics in 1976, at the same sports fair where to gymnast Nadia Comaneci became the first woman to achieve a maximum score of 10 points, the Olympics decided to highlight a point that Peru managed to score in the match against Japan.

This confrontation took place on July 21, 1976 and the national team was made up of 12 volleyball players: Luisa Fuentes QuijandriaLuisa Merea, Teresa Nuñez Laos, Gaby CardenasSilvia Quevedo, Irma Cordero Bonilla, Maria Del Risco, Mercedes Gonzalez La Torre, Maria Ostolaza, Ana Cecilia Carrillo Maria Cervera and Delia Cordoba.

The Peruvian team fell three sets to zero with partial scores 15-7, 15-4, 15-9 against the later became the champion team of Montreal 76Japan managed to reach the grand final at that time, undefeated after defeating South Korea in the semi-finals and Russia, which at the time was the Soviet Union, in the final.

However, there were times when Peru took the initiative and complicated the Asian team, as the point that highlighted the Olympic Games in its publication through a video where they show how ‘Lucha‘ Fuentes takes the first serve and after a bad counter from the Japanese, the ball finally ends up out of bounds.

It’s nothing new that there have been better times for Peruvian volleyball and 1965 is when it all started or rather, when he arrived Akira Kato, the coach who took the reins of the national team by mixing the fast and powerful game he was used to.

The first victories took place in 1967 in a South American where the Peruvian sextet won Brazil for the first time in history. In addition, he got fourth place in the 1968 Mexico Olympics and 1973 World Cup, where the greats stood out Luisa Fuentes and Ana Cecilia Carrillo.

When Kato diedMan Bok Park has arrivedwho had already been part of the technical team before and the first big result he achieved was when he obtained the second place in the Youth World Cup in Mexico in 1981it was the beginning of the golden years of Peruvian volleyball.

The national team has occupied the podiums or the best places in all the championships in which it has participated, it has obtained the silver medal in the 1982 World Cupfourth place in 1984 Los Angeles Olympicswon the bronze medal at 1986 World Cupbut the biggest recognition they got was in Seoul in 1988.

The hopes of an Olympic medal were not far away, the women’s team was already used to winning and knew their opponents. They managed to beat Brazil 3-0, while with China and the United States, they suffered a little more, but were able to win 3-2 against both teams, as well as against Japan.

In the final against the Soviet Union, despite the start of the first two sets easily won thanks to excellent performances by Cecilia Tait, the best player of the Olympic tournament, Cenaida Uribe, Gabriela Pérez del Solar, Gina Torrealva and Rosa García, Finally, in the last sets, the European team reacted and took the first place.

However, volleyball continues to be the first team sport to win an Olympic medal and that he was very close to touching glory.