Cecilia Tait

Cecilia Roxana Tait Villacorta is a Peruvian politician and retired volleyball player. She was a key player in the rise of the Peruvian women's national volleyball team in the 1980s.

Sports career

Nicknamed "La Zurda de Oro", Tait participated in three Summer Olympics with the Peru national team, finishing sixth in 1980, fourth in 1984, and winning a silver medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, where she was the team captain. She was a member of the Peruvian team that won the silver medal at the 1982 FIVB World Championship in Peru, and the bronze medal at the 1986 FIVB World Championship in Czechoslovakia. She won a silver medal at the 1979 Pan American Games in Caguas, a bronze medal at the 1983 Pan American Games in Caracas, and a silver medal at the 1987 Pan American Games in Indianapolis.
In 2005, Tait was inducted into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame.

In 1998, Tait entered politics, becoming elected municipal councillor in Villa María del Triunfo, representing the Fujimorist party Vamos Vecino of President Alberto Fujimori. 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. She failed to attain reelection in 2006, but she was re-elected to Congress in 2011 and left office in 2016 after she failed to attain re-election under the Peruvians for Change party.