Viktoria Orsi Toth

Viktoria Orsi Toth (born 14 August 1990) is an Italian beach volleyball player who plays as a right-side blocker.

Orsi Toth was born on 14 August 1990 in Budapest, Hungary.

Her parents were both athletes; her father, Laszlo, was a decathlete who represented Hungary in international events, while her mother, Agnese, played basketball for the Hungary national team and in Italy's Serie A.

They both later became physical education teachers.

Up until the 2005–06 season, she played in the youth ranks of a local sports club, Santeramo Sport, alongside Immacolata Sirressi.

Orsi Toth credits Sirressi with making her become attracted to indoor volleyball, and the two later became teammates on the Italy women's national under-18 and under-20 teams, as well as in the Serie A1 club Tena Volley Santeramo.

Orsi Toth is a naturalized Italian citizen.

Although she grew up in Italy, she still converses in Hungarian with her parents.

She advanced from the youth leagues when she was selected to the Italian Volleyball Federation's (FIPAV) Club Italia in the 2006–07 season.

The club played in the Serie B1 at the time, the third division of the Italian volleyball league system.

In the summer of 2007, she signed with Lines Ecocapitanata Altamura in the Serie A1, the top division of the league system.

As the second-youngest player in the league, Orsi Toth made her debut in October as a substitute in the third set of her club's three-set loss against Unicom Starker Kerakoll Sassuolo.

Altamura finished 9th out of the 12 Serie A1 clubs in the 2007–08 regular season, just missing out on advancing to the eight-team championship playoffs.

They also took part in the Italian Cup, a volleyball competition involving the Serie A1 and A2 clubs, and were eliminated in the second round.

Over the course of the season, Orsi Toth played in 12 matches (19 sets) and recorded a hitting percentage of 0.23, slightly below her team's average of 0.27.

After one season with Altamura, Orsi Toth left to join another Serie A1 team, Tena Volley Santeramo.

As a member of the Italy women's national under-20 team, she won the 2008 Junior European Volleyball Championship.

Santeramo ended the 2008–09 regular season ranked 12th out of the 14 teams and thus managed to stay just ahead of the relegation cutoff.

They were knocked out of the Serie A1 Italian Cup by Foppapedretti Bergamo in the second round.

Orsi Toth played in 24 matches (82 sets) for Santeramo in total, posting a hitting percentage of 0.15, which was well below her team's average of 0.27.

Orsi Toth competed in her first international beach volleyball event in 2010 and quit indoor volleyball the following year to focus solely on the beach game.

Orsi Toth debuted on the World Tour in 2011.

For the next two and a half seasons, she was mostly partnered with Laura Giombini and struggled to qualify for main draws.

Her breakthrough came mid-2013 when she teamed up with Menegatti.

The pair medalled on the World Tour five times over the next three years, including their first World Tour title in 2015.

She has been a member of the Centro Sportivo Aeronautica Militare since September 2015, with the current rank of Airman First Class (Primo Aviere).

Off the court, Orsi Toth has a very shy personality.

Orsi Toth began her sporting career playing indoor volleyball in the outside/opposite hitter position.

With partner Marta Menegatti, she achieved a career-high world ranking of No. 7 in June 2016.

Her career highlights include two gold, three silver and two bronze medals on the FIVB World Tour.

Born in Hungary, her family moved to Italy when Orsi Toth was five.

She began her sporting career playing indoor volleyball for various clubs, including two seasons in the Serie A1.

They qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics but Orsi Toth was suspended right before the tournament for a doping violation, for which she has maintained her innocence.

Orsi Toth has two siblings: her brother, Lorenzo, was a track and field athlete who ran the 800 metres; her younger sister, Reka, was a silver medalist at the 2017 European U20 Beach Volleyball Championships, and has played NCAA Division I indoor volleyball for the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (2018) and beach volleyball for the Loyola Marymount Lions.

Orsi Toth was five when her parents moved the family to Italy for their careers, eventually settling down in Santeramo in Colle.

Growing up, Orsi Toth played various sports including swimming, ballet and taekwondo.

She had originally aspired to take after her father and become a heptathlete.

However, she detested running and lacked access to track and field training facilities.

She took up indoor volleyball instead as many of her friends were already playing it, even though her parents were initially against their daughter playing volleyball as Hungary does not have a strong tradition in the sport.

After serving a two-year ban, she returned to international competition in July 2018, resuming her partnership with Menegatti.