Goa golds push Swiss and Austrians up in the Olympic Rankings
Road to Paris
Few things will be more important in international beach volleyball in the next eight months than qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympics. The race to be a part of sports’ greatest event is always fascinating and generates endless interesting storylines involving the top teams in the world. We will be following the Olympic qualification process throughout the entire period and will also present some articles that will help you understand how it works and introduce you to some of the stars of the sport that will be chasing something special on their Road to Paris.
Several European teams headed to Goa, India, last week to compete in a Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Challenge event needing a strong result to keep their hopes of appearing at next year’s Paris Olympics alive. And some of them accomplished that goal, improving their situations at the FIVB Olympic Rankings.
The rankings, which will determine 17 of the 24 teams that will compete in next year’s Paris Olympics, are formed by the total points earned by teams considering their best 12 results in international and continental tournaments played until June 10, 2024, when the 17 best-ranked men’s and women’s teams will secure a spot in the Games.
Although they wouldn’t qualify for Paris 2024 if the deadline was today, Swiss Anouk Vergé-Dépré and Joana Mäder significantly bettered their situation with their title in India. The Tokyo Olympic medalists collected 800 points with their victory in India and elevated their total to 5,720.
That amount would be enough to place them in 13th place on the list, but since two other Swiss teams – Esmée Böbner/Zoé Vergé-Dépré (ninth - 6,640 points) and Nina Brunner/Tanja Hüberli (tenth - 6,340) – rank above them, the two would be left out of the Games given the country quota of two duos per county.
Mäder and Vergé-Dépré, however, have only ten results accounted for so far and are in a strong position to catch Esmée and Zoé when they get to 12 finishes – despite having fewer points, Brunner and Hüberli have just nine results considered.
Silver medalists Sandra Ittlinger and Karla Borger of Germany also sit outside the qualification zone, but the 760 points earned in India elevated their total to 4,860, less than 400 below the 17th-placed duo right now, and also made them surpass compatriots Laura Ludwig and Louisa Lippman (4,520).
Spanish Daniela Álvarez and Tania Moreno also see Paris closer after their third-place finish in Goa. With 5,460 points, the 2023 CEV EuroBeachVolley silver medalists are now in 15th place and one step closer to making their first Olympic appearance.
With most of the world’s top teams skipping the event in Goa, the Netherlands’ Katja Stam/Raisa Schoon (fifth – 7,480 points) and Italy’s Marta Menegatti/Valentina Gottardi (sixth – 7,440) were both able to preserve their spots inside the Rankings top ten.
Six other European duos are inside the qualification zone now, what would make the continent qualify 11 teams via Olympic Rankings if the deadline was today – Germany’s Svenja Müller/Cinja Tillmann (11th - 6,140), Latvia’s Tina Graudina/Anastasija Samoilova (12th - 6,100), Finland’s Taru Lathi/Niina Ahtiainen (13th - 5,640), Czechia’s Barbora Hermannová/Marie-Sara Štochlová (14th - 5,620), France’s Lézana Placette/Alexia Richard (16th – 5,420) and Poland’s Jagoda Gruszczynska/Aleksandra Wachowicz (17th - 5,280).
The men’s winners, Austrians Robin Seidl and Moritz Pristauz didn’t break into the qualification zone yet, but their victory in India added 800 points to their total, elevating it to 5,060, taking them to 19th place, just 620 points behind the last team that would be qualified now.
Silver medalists Pablo Herrera and Adrián Gavira of Spain were already in the Olympic Ranking top ten entering the event, but improved their points total to 7,240 and gained three spots over the weekend, going up to seventh.
The English Bello twins Javier and Joaquin also benefited from the 720 points collected in India, but, with just five eligible results and 2,020 points accumulated, are still far away from the qualification zone, ranking 39th.
The top four of the Olympic Rankings remained unaltered, with Norway’s Anders Mol/Christian Sørum (first – 9,460 points), Italy’s Paolo Nicolai/Samuele Cottafava (second – 7,740), Germany’s Nils Ehlers/Clemens Wickler (third – 7,740) and Sweden’s Jonatan Hellvig/David Åhman (fourth, 7720).
Also inside the qualification zone are the Netherlands’ Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeusen (eighth - 6,960 points), Italy’s Adrian Carambula/Alex Ranghieri (ninth – 6,920), Austria’s Alexander Horst/Julian Hörl (11th – 6,560), Poland’s Michal Bryl/Bartosz Łosiak (15th – 5,880) and the Netherlands’ Matthew Immers/Steven van de Velde (16th – 5,680).
The next event to make a significant impact on the FIVB Olympic Rankings will be the Haikou Challenge, in China, from November 2-5.