2022 Beach Outlook: Germany, Poland & Spain

The years immediately after the ones in which the Olympics are played are typically the stage for massive changes in beach volleyball. From players retiring and new teams being formed to tournaments being revamped, 2022 won’t be an exception and will have all of it.

The exceptionally long five-year period between the Rio 2016 and the Tokyo 2021 Games has kept teams around the world together for longer than ever before, but now with Paris 2024 just three years away, several moves have been made over the last couple of months. The international season is set to start in March with the new Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour and several European teams are already in training camps, a handful of them in Tenerife, the ‘Island of Eternal Spring’.

If you couldn’t keep track of all the moving pieces, here’s where you’ll get up-to-date on them ahead of the start of the season. This is the first piece of a four-part series in which we’ll tell you how each of the top 12 European countries are preparing for the upcoming season. We start with Germany, Poland and Spain.

Germany

Outside of 2021 EuroBeachVolley silver medalists and World Tour Finals winners Julia Sude and Karla Borger, Germany women’s beach volleyball will look a lot different in 2022. Rio 2016 Olympic champion Laura Ludwig is sidelined as she expects her second child and although her last partner, Maggie Kozuch, is yet to announce her plans, several other moves have already been made. Isabel Schneider reacted quickly to the retirement of longtime partner Victoria Bieneck and announced Sandra Ittlinger as her new teammate. Ittlinger’s former partner, Kim Behrens, will also sit out of the season due to pregnancy.

Olympic champion Kira Walkenhorst is attempting another comeback and she scooped one of the most talented young players in the country in 20-year-old Anna-Lena Grune. Two other up-and-coming players who will have experienced partners by their side in 2022 are 20-year-old Svenja Muller, who will continue to play with Cinja Tillmann, and 22-year-old Sarah Schulz, who partners with Chantal Laboureur.

On the men’s side, the country’s two top teams were dismantled with the retirements of Olympians Julius Thole and Lars Fluggen. Their most recent partners, Clemens Wickler and Nils Ehlers have paired to arguably form the top German men’s team right now. Phillip Bergmann was another one to step away, leaving his former teammate Yannick Harms with 23-year-old Milan Sievers.

Young Player/Team to Watch: There’s a ton of young talent coming up in Germany, especially one the women’s side. but Muller’s 1.94m set her apart. The towering blocker has showed some potential, winning a pair of international bronze medals last year, and with an experienced player like Tillmann to mentor her, she should develop nicely this season.

Poland

Poland will enter 2022 without arguably its best player in the last decade as three-time Olympian Grzegorz Fijalek announced his retirement at the age of 34 just a few weeks ago. His partner Michal Bryl grabbed the best option available in 2021 EuroBeachVolley bronze medalist Bartosz Losiak. His partner in the last 12 years, Piotr Kantor has turned to Maciej Rudol, a blocker like him, and will form a very tall team to compete internationally.

The country’s top women’s team of Kinga Wojtasik and Katarzyna Kociolek, which among other notable results has won silver at the 2019 EuroBeachVolley, continues together for now and will try to qualify to Paris after missing out by a thin margin in Tokyo.

Young Player/Team to Watch: Poland has a strong tradition in developing great blockers and Milosz Kruk could be the next one in line. The 2.01m-tall, 21-year-old blocker has won a silver medal in the World Tour last year and is currently paired with veteran defender Jakub Szalankiewicz.

Spain

Many had thought the Tokyo Games would be the finish line for 39-year-old Pablo Herrera, but after competing in his fifth-straight Olympics the veteran has announced he’ll continue on the sand and will start his 14^th-straight season with Adrian Gavira in 2022. This is, however, the only top Spanish team that remains together as Cesar Menendez has decided to retire at the age of 30 and his partner Alejandro Huerta will now pair with Sergi Rene, a 24-year-old blocker who has been plagued by injuries over the last years.

The movement also hit the women’s side hard, most notably with the absences of three-time Olympians Elsa Baquerizo, who retired, and Liliana Fernandez, who is expecting her second child. The farewell of veteran Amaranto Navarro has pushed her former partner Angela Lobato to pair with 22-year-old Maria Belen Carro, one of the most promising young players in the country. Her former partner, Paula Soria, is yet to announce her plans.

Young Player/Team to Watch: They might not be regulars on the Beach Pro Tour, but Daniela Alvarez, a 20-year-old, 1.88m-tall, left-handed blocker, and Tania Moreno, a 19-year-old skilled defender, have showed a lot of promise when they competed internationally. They are also partners for their college team Texas Christian University in the United States and have tons of chemistry on and off the court.