Anna Mellano, a 17-year-old basketball player at Basket Venaria, died on Monday, 19 October 2026. The Italian Basketball Federation announced the death. Born in 2009, she played as a wing for the club in Venaria Reale, near Turin. FIP writes that she was taken by an “unjust illness”. La Repubblica and club president Matteo Mitton name the illness: leukemia. That is not a hospital medical bulletin published here.

In July 2024 she was in the Under-15 national team, at the Torneo dell’Amicizia in Varese. Gazzetta writes that she had also entered the Under-16 circle, under coach Lucchesi, then stopped playing because of the illness. That is the sporting path announced. It is not an Olympic record and not a 2026 call-up.

Mitton told Repubblica that fatigue appeared after a national-team camp, at Christmas 2023; her father, an orthopedic doctor, was not alarmed at once; the leukemia diagnosis came after tests. That is the club’s account, not a clinical file. He says she still came to the gym, seemed better, then worsened again. We do not describe the treatment.

FIP president Giovanni Petrucci sent condolences to the Mellano family, to her parents Danilo and Marta, and to the club. The federation text is public. We do not name teammates. This is not a court-side accident and not a criminal case.

On the same day FIP also spoke of other deaths in Italian basketball. Anna’s case is hers: 17, Venaria, leukemia according to the club and the papers, federal condolences. We do not mix the obituaries.

The closed fact: the death announced on Monday by FIP. The detailed cause remains what the club and newspapers said, not a certificate posted in public.

Image: Reggia di Venaria Reale, 8 September 2021, Zairon, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The town, not the court and not a portrait of Anna.

Sources consulted: Anna Mellano, morta a 17 anni la giocatrice di basket. Era nel giro azzurro, aveva la leucemia — la Repubblica; È morta Anna Mellano, dolce e giovane azzurra. Le condoglianze del presidente Petrucci — FIP; Basket italiano in lutto: addio ad Anna Mellano — La Gazzetta dello Sport.