Dalixia Fernández

Dalixia Fernández
portrait
birthday	November 26, 1977
place of birth	Guantánamo, Cuba
size	1.77 m
Partner	2000–2001 Tamara Larrea 2001–2002 Yoselín Roque 2003–2008 Tamara Larrea 2009 Imara Esteves Ribalta
successes
2000 - Olympic participant 2004 - Olympic participant 2008 - Olympic participant
(As of August 16, 2011)

Dalixia Fernández Grasset (born November 26, 1977 in Guantánamo ) is a former Cuban beach volleyball player . She took part in three Olympic Games.

Career

Fernández played her first open tournaments in 2000 with Tamara Larrea . At the Olympic tournament in Sydney , the Cubans fought their way to the round of 16 after a clear opening defeat against the Brazilian silver medalists and were defeated by the Americans Davis / Jordan . In 2001 they made it into the top ten at many FIVB tournaments. At the World Cup in Klagenfurt they reached the round of 16 without losing a set, which they lost against Wood / Bragado from the USA. They finished the Goodwill Games in Brisbane in eighth place. From the end of 2001 to 2002 Fernández played with Yoselín Roque and was ninth three times in open tournaments.

In 2003 she got back together with Tamara Larrea and took fourth place in Rhodes . At the World Cup in Rio de Janeiro , the reunited duo failed in the first main round to the later bronze medalists Cook / Sanderson from Australia. The two Cubans' second Olympic participation ended in Athens in 2004 in the round of 16 against Canadians Dumont / Martin . In Berlin , where they had already reached the final in the 2004 Grand Slam, they narrowly missed a medal at the 2005 World Cup by losing to the Chinese couple Tian Jia / Wang Fei .

In 2007 in Gstaad they lost in the preliminary round of the World Cup to their national rivals Ribalta / Crespo and finished ninth after losing to the Americans Branagh / Youngs in the round of 16 . Exactly the same result came a year later at the Olympic tournament in Beijing . After her third Olympic participation, Larrea ended her international career. Fernández completed a few tournaments with Esteves Ribalta in 2009. At the World Cup in Stavanger, the Cuban duo lost to the Brazilians Ana Paula / Shelda in the first main round after three sets .

After retiring from active sports, she worked as a beach volleyball referee in 2010.

Web links

• Profile at FIVB (English)
• Profile in the Beach Volleyball Database (English)
• Dalixia Fernández in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Dalixia Fernández Grasset in the official Cuban online encyclopedia EcuRed (Spanish)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ In some sources (e.g. Sports Reference and Goodwill Games ) the second family name is written Grosset