Cecilia Tait

This name uses Spanish naming customs; the first or paternal family name is Tait and the second or maternal family name is Villacorta.

Cecilia Tait
Tait in 2006
Personal information
Full name	Cecilia Roxana Tait Villacorta
Nickname	La Zurda del Oro (The Golden Left-Handed Woman)
Born	March 5, 1962 (1962-03-05) Lima, Peru
Height	1.83 metres (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	63 kilograms (140 lb)
Volleyball information
Current club	retired
National team
1978–1988	Peru
Honours Olympic Games Silver 1988 Seoul Team World Championship Silver 1982 Peru Team Bronze 1986 Czechoslovakia Team Pan American Games Silver 1979 San Juan Team Silver 1987 Indianapolis Team Bronze 1983 Caracas Team South American Championship Gold 1979 Rosario Team Gold 1983 Sao Paolo Team Gold 1985 Caracas Team Gold 1987 Montevideo Team

Cecilia Roxana Tait Villacorta (born March 5, 1962 in Lima) is a former Afro-Peruvian volleyball player from Lima, and a Peruvian politician. Nicknamed La Zurda del Oro (The Golden Left-Handed Woman) she participated in three Summer Olympics with the Peruvian national team, finishing 4th in 1984 and receiving a silver medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. She received a silver medal at the 1982 World championship, and a bronze medal in 1986. Tait was inducted into the Volleyball Hall of Fame in 2005.

Background

Cecilia Tait was born in Lima on March 5, 1962. She never knew her father, Eric Tait, who was a well known pianist at the Hotel Criollon in downtown Lima, but who abandoned the family before she was born. Cecilia and her six brothers and sisters (they have a common mother but four different fathers) mostly grew up in Lima. Cecilia began playing volleyball on the dirt street outside their home in the Lima neighborhood of Nueva Esperanza in the district of Villa Maria del Triunfo. She was so enraptured with the sport that she used to sleep with a volleyball. She caught the attention of the president of one of Lima's better teams when she was 12. Cecilia was a diamond in the rough. Smart, dedicated and with tons of natural ability, she was elevated to the national juvenile team by her 15th birthday. Under the coaching of Man Bok Park, from South Korea, Tait alongside other Peruvian Volleyball players such as Rosa García, Gina Torrealva and Denisse Fajardo, participated in different international competitions in 1979 (2nd place), 1980 (1st place) and 1981 (2nd place). In the 1982 Volleyball World Cup in Peru, she led her squad to a silver medal, losing only to the United States. Afterward, other, younger players joined the national team, including Gabriela Perez del Solar and Natalia Málaga. After the Olympics of 1984 in Los Angeles, she moved to Italy to play there. Tait had already played professionally in Japan. She hurt her knee in 1987 but rehabilitated it well enough to star for the national team for the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. She captained the Peruvian team and was chosen as the world's best player as the Peruvians won cliff-hanger matches against Japan, China and the United States before losing a heart-breaker to the Soviet Union in the gold medal match. Tait by then was playing professionally in Brazil. She retired in 1991, after her 7th knee-surgery.

In 1998 Cecilia Tait entered politics, becoming elected municipal councillor in Villa María del Triunfo, representing the Fujimorist party Vamos Vecino. Tait was elected Congresswoman in 2000, representing Perú Posible. She was the first Afro-Peruvian elected to Peru's Congress. The resignation of President Alberto Fujimori led to new elections the following year in which she was reelected for the period 2001–2006. Tait sponsored several bills approved by the Congress that expanded sports programs for both the country's most talented athletes and poor school children as well.

Tait chose not to seek re-election in 2006 to Congress but remained in the public eye. She appeared on Peru's version of "Dancing with the Stars." She had to retire after her male partner accidentally broke her rib while lifting her up during rehearsals one week. In another reality TV show, she spent the weekend living with a poor family. One morning, she accompanied the head of the household as she sold ceviche before dawn. In an interview afterward, Tait said the weekend reminded her of the struggle endured by her mother when Tait was young and growing up in poverty.

The rise of Tait and four other Peruvian volleyball stars was highlighted in the Peruvian TV series Las Matadoras (Spikers) in 2010. The program, which mixed fact with fiction, drew huge ratings during its two months on the air. In this way, it introduced younger Peruvians to the country's greatest athletic squad in the past generation. The series ended by showing the epochal 1988 Olympic matches, when the entire country awoke before dawn to watch the games broadcast from Seoul.

Tait announced in October 2010 that she had successfully completed treatment for Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph glands. Her announcement was front-page news across the country. A Peruvian version of "60 Minutes" sent a camera crew to Boston, where Tait was on vacation, to broadcast a special report on the news.

In February 2011, former President Alejandro Toledo, running for president again, asked Tait to head his congressional list of candidates for Peru Posible. With the No. 1 position on the congressional ticket, Tait was featured in numerous news reports. She used those appearances to urge women in particular to get health check-ups and breast exams.

On April 10, 2011, Tait was elected again to Congress. She was the 10th highest vote getter in Lima, out of the 468 candidates from the various political parties. Tait said during the campaign that she wanted to return to Congress to expand decent health care to all Peruvians.

Tait remains a national icon and arguably the country's best female athlete ever.

References

• sports-reference