Italy Women

No player wore the blue shirt more often than Catarina Pollini. The FIBA Hall of Fame took her in during 2022, recognition that arrived long after she had left the court.

The team she represented had already built its history by then. It played its first international match on 13 April 1930, in Nice, and lost to France 34–8. Italy won the inaugural FIBA EuroBasket Women in 1938. A silver at EuroBasket 1995 and bronze finishes in 1974 and 2025 have come closest since.

Liliana Ronchetti's name outlived her own career in a different way: FIBA renamed its European Cup of Cups after her, and one she earned before Pollini had set a single record of her own.

Italy has no single home ground to return to. Qualifiers and friendlies rotate between PalaLottomatica in Rome, PalaDozza in Bologna and smaller halls further south, and the sharpest test still comes from Spain.