Latvia quickly becoming a beach volleyball nation
Feature
The beach volleyball tournament of the Tokyo Olympics is yet to determine its medalists in both genders, but it’s already possible to pick a clear winner on it – Latvian beach volleyball.
The small Central European nation, which has a population of just over two million people, has qualified two teams for the Olympics and has advanced both of them to the semifinals, being the only country to have representation in the medal rounds in both genders.
Latvia’s chances of having such a strong campaign seemed slim at the beginning of the Games. On the men’s side, the country’s most successful team in international competition, the one of Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins, didn’t qualify to Tokyo, putting all the hopes of a good performance on the shoulders of Martins Plavins and Edgars Tocs, who had had an inconsistent season before going to Japan.
Among the women, the nation had great momentum, being represented in the Olympics for the first time in history by Tina Graudina and Anastasija Kravcenoka, but their limited playing time over the last year had apparently created a gap between the top tier of the sport and them.
Anastasija Kravcenoka“We have many people who work very hard - coaches and athletes. We want it, we are very motivated, we work hard. We just believe in ourselves that we can do it because we are a proud nation. I couldn't imagine that both teams, men and women, would get into the semifinals. It’s amazing. Of course, we believe that we can fight for a medal, but like, both teams… it's just incredible, and I'm really proud of our team.”
Talent alone, though, is rarely enough to generate success at the highest level of international sports. The Latvians obviously needed it to get where they are, but they have also worked really hard for it.
Edgars Tocs“We’re hard workers. The salary that we earn on the World Tour is not big, but for Latvians it gives us the chance to practice, to go out of the country to Egypt or Spain where we can practice all year and prepare for the international season.”
Latvia’s Olympic success is not unprecedented as in 2012, in just their second participation at the Games, they stepped on the podium with Plavins and Smedins taking bronze in London. The country has been pretty solid on the men’s game over the last decade and now the hope is that the women get to the same level in the near future.
Tina Graudina“Starting in 2008, we’ve had one team at every Olympics, so it has slowly become a very popular sport. It started very small but now it’s already pretty big. The fact that we made it here is also inspiring a lot of new, young girls to start playing beach volleyball, which we’re very happy about because we want to have more than one team, we want two teams at the Olympic Games. Hopefully this will inspire some young girls.”
And just like this, Latvia is quickly becoming a beach volleyball nation.
Anastasija Kravcenoka“I feel huge support from people around the world who send me messages. I think beach volleyball is really the best sport in the world, I want many people to play it and feel the same joy and excitement that we feel.”