Carol’s message after a personal battle: “Prevention saves lives, and it saved mine”

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For more than a decade, Ana Carolina da Silva was known around the volleyball world simply as Carol: a middle blocker whose 1.83 metres never seemed to tell the whole story of her presence at the net. She built a reputation as one of the great blockers of her generation, won Olympic medals with Brazil and became one of the most decorated players of her era. This year, however, she found herself facing a completely different kind of challenge, away from the court.

In September, Carol revealed that she had been diagnosed with cervical cancer in April, after a routine medical examination. She underwent surgery in June and a second procedure in August. She has since said that she is feeling well and is now out of danger, with the early detection of the tumour playing a crucial role in her treatment.
Rather than keeping the experience private, Carol decided to speak publicly about it and use her story to encourage others to take their health seriously.

“Prevention saves lives, and it saved mine,” she said in a message shared with her followers. She explained that the tumour had been detected at a very early stage during a routine examination, allowing her to complete the treatment successfully. Her appeal was simple: regardless of how busy life becomes, people should make time for themselves, their health and the things that truly matter.

It was a very different message from the ones Carol spent most of her career delivering on a volleyball court, but there was something familiar in the way she approached it. The same player who built her reputation on anticipation, timing and reading what was coming next was now talking about the importance of paying attention before a problem becomes bigger.

Carol’s sporting career gives the story another dimension. She represented Brazil from 2012 until her international retirement in 2025 and became a key figure through two Olympic cycles. She won silver at Tokyo 2020 and bronze at Paris 2024, while also collecting World Championship silver in 2022 and bronze in 2014. Her international résumé also includes three VNL medals and five South American Championship titles.
She was particularly feared for her blocking. During the 2022 VNL, Carol produced 63 block points, finishing the competition as the tournament’s best blocker and setting a record for the competition at the time. Volleyball World also recorded her as the leading blocker in that edition, highlighting just how influential she was at the net.
Her impact was not limited to the national team. In Brazil, she won five Superliga titles, while her international club career took her to some of the strongest leagues in the world. Her most recent European chapter came with Savino Del Bene Scandicci, with whom she reached the Champions League podium and won Italian league medals before moving on to a new phase of her career in the United States.
That new chapter brought another important change. After ending her Brazil career, Carol joined LOVB Nebraska, where she was reunited with her wife, Dutch former international Anne Buijs. The two had previously played together in Brazil and Turkey before spending several seasons in Italy with different clubs. Nebraska gave them the opportunity to share the same team again in the United States.
Carol remains part of Nebraska’s roster for the 2026-27 season, meaning that her return to volleyball is now taking place in a very different context from the one she knew during her years with Brazil. The latest chapter is no longer about Olympic qualification or international medals. It is about continuing to play, enjoying a different stage of her career and, after an unexpectedly difficult year, moving forward.

That is why her decision to talk about her diagnosis carries weight beyond volleyball. Carol did not present herself as someone who had discovered a secret solution, nor did she turn her experience into a dramatic story. Instead, she focused on something much more basic: the value of routine medical checks and acting early.

“I was diagnosed in April, have already completed the entire treatment and am feeling very well,” she explained. “This was an extremely challenging period, in which I received a lot of information and had to make important decisions that will impact the rest of my life. But the most important thing is that I’m well and ready to live and to continue doing what I love.”

For a player who spent years helping Brazil win medals and setting blocking records, there is an understandable temptation to define Carol by what happened inside a volleyball court. Her latest story offers a reminder that there is much more to an athlete than the statistics, trophies and photographs.

At 35, Carol is still playing. But after two surgeries and a diagnosis discovered through a routine check-up, the most important victory of her year has nothing to do with volleyball. It is the opportunity to continue with her life — and to use her own experience to remind others that sometimes the most important thing an athlete, or anyone else, can do is simply stop for a moment and take care of themselves.