Marianne Steinbrecher (born August 23, 1983)[1] is a Brazilian
volleyball player,[2] who plays as a wing spiker[3] at
Molico/Osasco. She represented her native country at the
2008 Summer Olympics in
Beijing,
China, in which she helped her country win the gold medal.
Life and career
Born in
São Paulo,[2] Steinbrecher, who is of
Russian and
German descent,[4] started playing volleyball when she was 14 years old.[4] After playing for Rolândia/Faccar and Grêmio Londrinense,[5] she professionalized while playing for Osasco.[4] Playing for Osasco, she won the
Salonpas Cup in 2001, in 2002 and in 2005,[6] the Campeonato Paulista in 2003,[4] and the
Superliga in 2003–04.[6] In 2006, she left Osasco and joined Italian club
Scavolini Pesaro.[4][5] In 2008, she returned to Brazil to play for São Caetano/Blausiegel in the Copa Brasil.[7][8]
In 2010, she signed a contract with the Brazilian club
Unilever Volley. She played with
Fenerbahçe in the
2012 FIVB Club World Championship held in
Doha,
Qatar and helped her team to win the bronze medal after defeating Puerto Rico's
Lancheras de Cataño 3–0.[9]
National team
.
Playing for the
national team, she won the
FIVB World Grand Prix in 2004, in 2006, in 2008[4] and in 2009. In the
2008 FIVB World Grand Prix, she was awarded the competition's Most Valuable Player (MVP).[10] Steinbrecher participated in the
2004 Summer Olympics, in which her country finished in the fourth place, after being defeated by
Cuba in the bronze medal match.[11] In the
2007 Pan American Games, she won the silver medal, after her country was defeated by Cuba in the final.[4] In 2008, on her birthday, in Beijing, Steinbrecher won her first gold medal in the Olympic Games, after her country beat the
United States 3–1 in the gold medal match.[12]