Facundo Conte writing his own history

If you aspire to be a professional athlete, being the son of a sports icon in your country can be a mix of advantages and disadvantages. While it’s undeniable that a well-recognised last name can open some doors and generate invaluable opportunities at the beginning, oftentimes the pressure of living up to your parent’s achievements and the inevitable comparisons that follow have the power to end a career before it even starts.

Fortunately for Facundo Conte, the son of Argentinean volleyball legend Hugo and Sonia, who also played the sport professionally, he was able to take only the positives from that scenario.

“Everything I know I learned from them,” the 31-year-old Conte said. “They taught me not only to play the game, but also to never forget that the most important thing is to have fun while playing. I have memories of playing with my father using a rope as the net and of him teaching me how to tool the block, which was one of his specialties. For some time I saw it was an obstacle, but I quickly realised it was actually a privilege.”

Facundo seems to have taken a page or two from his father's book, who was one of the leaders of the historical Argentinean generation which earned the country bronze medals at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the 1982 FIVB Volleyball World Championship.

An outside hitter like his father, Facundo got to play alongside Hugo in the early days of his career, when both featured for Argentina’s GEBA, and was also coached by him at Italy's Zinella Volley Bologna a few years later.

“To get to play with my son was the best thing that ever happened in my career,” Hugo commented.

Among the common traits between father and son are, undoubtedly, their outstanding technique and their fiery personality on the court, which more often than not is passed along to their teammates, making Argentina one of the most energetic teams in the world.

Hugo’s generation gave Argentina some of its most relevant results to date. Besides the historical bronze medals, he also led the team to a fourth-place finish at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Now Facundo’s generation, which also features other sons of players from the earlier generation, like setter Nicolas Uriarte and outside hitters Rodrigo Quiroga and Jan Martínez, are trying to take the Argentinean flag even further.

“We saw our fathers do very important things for the sport in Argentina, so I think that becoming players was kind of a natural path,” Facundo remarked. “It’s sort of a family tradition, but it happened naturally. Each of us chose to play volleyball because it was in our blood, we didn’t really have other options. And now we see the kids of some of our teammates coming to watch us play and we can’t help but wonder if in the future they’re going to be on our shoes.”

Over the last decade, the Argentinean national team have given signs they could repeat the results from the 1980s. The South Americans finished fifth in back-to-back editions of the Olympics, at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Games, and had some other promising finishes, such as victories at the 2015 and 2019 Pan-American Games, a fourth place in the 2011 FIVB Volleyball World League and fifth at both the 2015 and 2019 FIVB Volleyball World Cup.

In a few months, the Tokyo Olympics will provide them with an opportunity to get the result their country has been waiting for since Hugo and his teammates stepped on to the Olympic podium over 30 years ago.

“I’m very excited to compete in my third Olympics,” Facundo explained. “Our team has gotten better over the years and I think that now we have a great mix of veterans and younger players. We’re very motivated and hungry and that makes me very confident that we’ll do great at the Olympics, but regardless of what happens, one thing is for sure – we’ll fight until the end.”

Just like his father and that older generation.

Read more: Roster 100 to showcase stars of volleyball and beach volleyball

Quick links:
Roster 100
Volleyball World
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Youtube