Julio Velasco

Born in Argentina, Julio Velasco began playing volleyball at the age of 15. He studied Philosophy at university and, at 23, started his career as a coach.

He became Argentine champion with the Ferrocarril Oeste team of Buenos Aires and, at just 30 years old, as assistant coach achieved 3rd place at the 1983 World Championships with the Argentine national team. That same year, he moved to Italy, where he coached the A2 team “Tre Valli Jesi” for two years, before arriving in Modena in 1985. There, with “Panini,” he won the national title for four consecutive years, as well as the Italian Cup and the Cup Winners’ Cup. In 1989, he became head coach of the Italian Men’s National Team, with which, in seven years, he won three European Championships, two World Championships, an Olympic silver medal, five World Leagues, and one World Cup.

After a brief experience with the women’s national team, he transitioned to football, serving as General Director at S.S. Lazio and as coordinator of the medical-physical area at Internazionale F.C. In 2003, he returned to Italian volleyball as coach of “CoprAsystel” Piacenza, leading the team to second place both in the national championship and the CEV Cup. After coaching “Cimone” Modena and “Acqua Paradiso” Montichiari, he returned to the bench of a national team with Spain, with which he won the silver medal at the Mediterranean Games.

From 2011 to 2013, he coached the Iranian National Team, winning the Asian Championship for the first time in Iran’s history and for two consecutive editions, as well as securing a historic qualification for the World League. From 2014 to 2018, he was head coach of the Argentine National Volleyball Team, with which he won a historic gold medal at the 2015 Pan American Games.

Between 2019 and 2023, he served the Italian Volleyball Federation as Technical Director of the Men’s Youth National Teams, which under his leadership won several editions of the World and European Championships across different age categories.

He is currently head coach of the Senior Women’s National Team, with which he has won, in just two years, every tournament played: the Paris Olympic Games, the World Championship in Bangkok, and two editions of the Volleyball Nations League. Under his leadership, the national team broke its own record for consecutive victories, reaching 36.

He is the only volleyball coach to have won with national teams from three different continents. He is the third coach in the world to have won the World Championship with both a men’s and a women’s team. Most of his assistant coaches have in turn gone on to become head coaches of national teams. In 2019, he was awarded the title of Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic by initiative of the President of the Republic. In 2025, he received an Honorary Degree from the University of Trieste.

He also works as a keynote speaker at university and corporate conferences on group management, teamwork, motivation, leadership, training, change, and continuous improvement.