Year in Review: Vikings make EuroBeachVolley history

It seemed the perfect combination right from the start. To have the A1 CEV EuroBeachVolley 2021 presented by Swatch in a city that loves the sport as much as Vienna does and to do it right after the Olympics, where European teams were expected to shine, proved to be a flawless recipe for success with this year’s tournament ranking right up there among the best ever held in the continent.

Austrian fans were deprived of elite beach volleyball for two years and they were gifted with a new, central location for the Red Bull Beach Arena, which this year was placed in downtown Vienna, on the grounds of the Vienna Ice Skating Club. The home fans responded in great fashion, crowding both the new stadium and the traditional spot at the Danube Island, where the A1 5G Side Courts were located, in each of the five days of competition. That resulted in approximately 30,000 people watching matches in person and, most importantly, creating the atmosphere that can only be found in the Austrian capital.

One thing that remained exactly the same as in years before was the dominance of Anders Mol and Christian Sørum at the continental level. The Beach Volley Vikings entered the event as the three-time defending champions and were determined to become the first team to win four in a row. The odds were on their favor as the Norwegians hadn’t lost a single match in neither the previous three editions of the EuroBeachVolley they won nor in the two World Tour events in Vienna they triumphed.

But it wasn’t that simple. The exhaustion of having taken gold at the Tokyo Olympics just a week might have made the Vikings look beatable in the elimination round, but they still found a way to win, as they always do, and had a remarkable comeback in the gold medal match, reversing a 11-8 deficit in the third set to overcome Dutch EuroBeachVolley rookies Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot.

Polish Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak took bronze in what would be their last tournament as partners and ended their 12-year union with their first EuroBeachVolley medal.

There was also some continuity on the women’s side, but in a different way. With defending champions Joana Heidrich and Anouk Vergé-Dépré sidelined after winning bronze at the Tokyo Olympics, it was up to Nina Betschart and Tanja Hüberli to keep Switzerland at the top of the podium for another year.

The two were coming from a frustrating ninth-place finish in their first Olympic appearance, but did a great job in putting the result behind them and focusing on contending for the EuroBeachVolley title in Vienna.

The Swiss were dominant in the final against fellow Olympians Raisa Schoon and Katja Stam of the Netherlands and had arguably their most challenging moment in the semifinals, when they trailed eventual bronze medal winners Karla Borger and Julia Sude of Germany 14-11 in the tie-breaker but somehow scored five points in a row to move forward.