Darina Mifkova

Darina Mifkova was on the Italian volleyball squad at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the first Italian women’s team to compete at the Olympics. Following in the family tradition (her mother Anna was an Olympian for Czechoslovakia at the 1968 and 1972 Games), Darina made her name from the second half of the 1990s as being among the best Italian spikers. Technically proficient, plucky and reliable, she began in the First League, aged 17, in 1991, with SIPP Cassano, and then moved for three seasons to Modena, where she achieved her first trophy, the European Cup Winners’ Cup, in 1995.

In 1995-96 she moved to Bergamo, where she spent four productive seasons, winning four consecutive Italian titles (1996-99), three Italian Cups (1996-98), two European Cups (1997, 1999) and three Italian SuperCups (1996-98). After a year with Napoli, she then moved to Vicenza where, in two seasons, she won one Italian SuperCup and one CEV Cup (2001). In 2002 she returned to Modena, where she won another an Italian SuperCup. She then played with Forlì, Jesi, Padova and, before ending her career, Imola.

Mifkova earned 283 caps with the national team, beginning with her début on 27 December 1991 at Apeldoorn (The Netherlands) in a losing friendly against Russia. The climax of her career was a gold medal at the 2002 World Championships with a team coached by Marco Bonitta defeating the United States in the final. She also earned silver at the Europeans 2001 and two gold medals at the 1997 and 2001 Mediterranean Games. In 2002 she was a recipient of the title of Knight of the Italy’s Republic and, in 2004, of the Collare d’Oro for sporting merits.