The Road to Paris: European Saquarema medallists move up in the Olympic Rankings

Few things will be more important in international beach volleyball in the next 14 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 in their Road to Paris.

The medals won by Italy’s Marta Menegatti/Valentina Gottardi and Austria’s Julian Hörl/Alexander Horst his past weekend in a Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Challenge event in Saquarema, Brazil, have significantly improved their positions in 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.

Menegatti, 32, and Gottardi, 20, entered the event ranked 17^th in the Olympic Rankings, with the risk of dropping outside the qualification zone in case of a bad performance, but their first victory as a team had the exact opposite effect, propelling them to fifth place with 2,160 points – the Italians are tied with Japan’s Miki Ishii/Sayaka Mizoe and USA’s Taryn Kloth/Kristen Nuss, who appear in third and fourth place, respectively.

Three other European teams also gained multiple positions after last weekend’s event, with French Alexia Richard and Lézana Placette going from 12^th to ninth (1,960 points) after they finished ninth, Swiss Zoé Vergé-Dépré and Esmée Böbner moving from 18^th to 13^th (1,900) with their fifth-place finish, and Finland’s Niina Ahtiainen and Taru Lahti progressing from 19^th to 16^th (1,760) with the points earned with their ninth-place in Brazil.

Dutch Raisa Schoon and Katja Stam, who are tenth with 1,960 points, and Czechs Barbora Hermannová and Marie-Sara Stochlová, who rank 14^th with 1,900, are also inside the top-17 after the conclusion of the Brazilian event.

FIVB Women’s Olympic Rankings

In the men’s ranking, Hörl and Horst had the most impressive progress, going from 21^st to eighth after they elevated their points total to 1,940 with their third-place finish in Brazil. Their compatriots Robin Seidl and Moritz Pristauz, who were ninth in Saquarema, also advanced, moving from tenth to sixth with 2,040 points.

Although they were passed by Hörl and Horst, fellow Austrians Martin Ermacora and Philipp Waller also managed to progress, elevating their total to 1,560 with their 19^th-place finish, and climbing from 18^th to 16^th.

Other European teams inside the top-17 on the men’s side are Sweden’s David Åhman/Jonatan Hellvig (1^st – 2,760 points), Spain’s Pablo Herrera/Adrián Gavira (2^nd – 2,620), Norway’s Anders Mol/Christian Sørum (3^rd – 2,300), Italy’s Adrian Carambula/Alex Ranghieri (10^th – 1,760), Germany’s Nils Ehlers/Clemens Wickler (11^th – 1,760), the Netherlands’ Stefan Boermans/Yorick De Groot (13^th – 1,660) and the Netherlands’ Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen (17^th – 1,520).  

FIVB Men’s Olympic Rankings

The next update on the FIVB Olympic Rankings will happen after the conclusion of the Uberlândia Elite16, in Brazil, from April 26-30.