Jackie Silva enters her second season on the distinguished FIU Beach Volleyball squad as a volunteer coach. Silva is a retired volleyball player from Brazil, who won the gold medal in the inaugural women's beach volleyball tournament at the 1996 Summer Olympics, partnering Sandra Pires. She was first drafted by the Brazil women's national volleyball team at the age of 14, and was was part of the team who took Brazil to its first Olympics, Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984. In 1987 she left Brazil and played in Italy for a while before coming to the United States in 1988 to become a beach volleyball player, with Linda Chisholm as her first partner. In 1993 she joined Sandra Pires, with whom she won two world championships and the Olympic gold. Silva is a member of the CBVA Beach Volleyball Hall of Fame and the Volleyball Hall of Fame.
