European women looking to continue Olympic medal-winning streak at Paris 2024
Beach Volleyball Preview
With 13 teams from nine countries in action, European women’s beach volleyball representatives start their campaign at the Paris 2024 Olympics on Sunday with the goal of making it to the podium in the event for a third-straight edition.
The women’s tournament of the Paris Games will take place from July 27 to August 9, having the iconic Eiffel Tower as the background of the 14,000-seat temporary stadium that was built at the Champs de Mars for the event.
With a good mix of Olympic veterans and rookies, the European delegation headed to Paris will try to take the continent to the podium for a third-straight time, following the victory of Germans Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst at the Rio 2016 Games and the bronze medal-winning campaign of Swiss Joana Mäder and Anouk Vergé-Dépré in Tokyo three years ago.
Part of the team that gave European women’s beach volleyball its biggest victory to date, Ludwig will be in Paris to fight for medals for the fifth time at the Games. The 38-year-old German legend will tie Australia’s Natalie Cook as the woman with the most appearances in the event, playing alongside Louisa Lippmann, her fourth different partner at the Olympics.
Mäder and Vergé-Dépré, on the other hand, won’t get to play in Paris as compatriots Nina Brunner/Tanja Hüberli and Esmée Böbner/Zoé Vergé-Dépré accumulated more points than they did during the qualification process and occupied the maximum two spots per country available for Switzerland.
Three other countries will have two women’s teams competing in Paris – hosts France, with Lézana Placette/Alexia Richard and Clémence Vieira/Aline Chamereau, Spain, with Daniela Álvarez/Tania Moreno and Liliana Fernández/Paula Soria, and Germany, with Svenja Müller/Cinja Tillmann joining Ludwig and Lippmann.
Dutch Raisa Schoon and Katja Stam, who will make their second Olympic appearance, get to Paris as the highest-ranked European duo, featuring in fourth place in the FIVB World Rankings.
Ranked eighth, Latvians Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova are also strong medal contenders for the Paris Games. The two, who have a pair of European titles under their belts, finished fourth in Tokyo three years ago and made it to the podium in three of their last four international events before heading to Paris.
The 26-year-old Graudina will have special memories of the Paris Games regardless as her country’s Olympic Committee picked her to be one of the flag bearers during the Opening Ceremony, which will be held at the Seine River on Friday, July 26.
The Paris Games will also be memorable for Lithuania, as the country will be represented in beach volleyball for the first time after Monika Paulikiene and Aine Raupelyte qualified for the event.
Also representing Europe at the Games will be duos from Italy, formed by four-time Olympian Marta Menegatti and rookie Valentina Gottardi, and Czechia, featuring three-time Olympian Barbora Hermannová and first-timer Marie-Sára Štochlova.
The 24 women’s teams that qualified for the Paris Games were split into six pools of four for the first phase of the tournament. At the end of pool play, all six pool winners and runners-up will advance to the Round of 16, as well as the two best third-placed duos.
The four remaining third-placed teams will compete in the lucky loser round, with the two match winners completing the lineup for the elimination rounds. From the Round of 16 on, the tournament progresses in a single-elimination format.
Although the Olympic tournament begins on Saturday, European teams will only get on the court on Sunday, July 28, when seven duos from the continent will be in action. Menegatti/Gottardi will play Liliana/Paula at 9:00 local time, Müller/Tillmann will meet Vieira/Chamereau at 12:00 local time, Stam/Schoon will battle Paulikiene/Raupelyte at 15:00 local time and Hermannová/Štochlova will face USA’s Kelly Cheng/Sarah Hughes at 22:00 local time.