A title earned through immense effort: How did Turkey become a volleyball nation?

Turkey’s women’s national volleyball team defeated Italy 3-2 to become European champions for the second consecutive time. Turkey’s rise in women’s volleyball, however, did not begin overnight. From the game Selim Sırrı Tarcan introduced to schools around 1919 to Eczacıbaşı’s investment in the 1960s, from the professional league to European trophies, and from sports secondary schools to Fabrika Voleybol, a century of accumulated experience has made Turkey one of the world’s leading volleyball centres today.