Tomorrow, the first Beach Pro Tour event of the 2024 season begins in Doha, Qatar, in the same location the 2023 season ended, just 3 months ago. Eighteen of the twenty teams (10 per gender) invited to the Pro Tour Finals in December will be back out on the sand this week.
In December, a hefty prize purse and a podium opportunity was on the line. Now, with only ten events (five Elite 16’s) left in the 2024 Olympic qualification window, the stakes have shifted dramatically. Olympic points are the sought-after currency now, with a lot left to be determined before the 2024 Summer Olympics start in July.
Notably, there are two top 10 teams absent from the Doha entry list, Italians Adrian Carambula and Alex Ranghieri as well as Americans Miles Partain and Andy Benesh. The Italians have completed their 12 tournaments at this point and can now only replace a worse result with a better moving forward. Entry points are based on the best 3 of the last 4 FIVB tournaments played, so the Italians are holding onto their 3rd in Montreal last year as long as they can and hoping they can sneak into an Elite 16 main draw sometime soon.
Miles and Andy only have 10 of the 12 tournaments played, but they too are holding onto a great result in Montreal, a silver medal. With their current Olympic point total they are a virtual lock for Paris, so they might be more focused on getting right for July than playing in as many Elite 16’s as they can this season.
Let’s start on the Women’s side. The favorites should not surprise anyone, if you’ve been following along. From our Olympic Preview a few weeks ago:
“Brazil’s Eduarda Santos Lisboa (Duda) and Ana Patricia Ramos are currently the heavy gold medal favorites for this summer’s eighth showcase of beach volleyball at the Olympic Games. In 2023, Duda and Ana Patricia won more Elite 16 golds than any other team won medals. They won more Elite 16 gold medals than every other team combined.”
https://betthebeach.com/2024/02/06/lets-talk-olympics/
Brazil are our favorites to win gold in Paris, favorites as well to win in Doha this week. They’re followed by the two USA women’s teams, Canada, and Australia to round out the top 5. Australia may be a surprise to some, but they’ll be dropping a 5th from Gstaad last year in entry points and still need 2 more tournaments to get to their 12 for Olympic rankings. The last time they competed they took a 4th at World Champs and have the experience to know how to handle an Olympic run, taking silver in 2020 in Tokyo.
If you’re looking for a good long shot to back, keep an eye on Tina/Anastasija at +500 or Klinger/Klinger at +1200 to make the podium. Both teams are right on the Olympic qualification edge, and both could use a good result here to help firm up their run to Paris 2024.
On the men’s side, we’ve bumped the Swedes (+400) to just slightly better odds than the 2020 Olympic Gold medalists, Anders Mol and Christian Sorum (+500). Both teams are heavily favored to podium (-1000). Keep a close eye on Crabb/Brunner (+500) and Evans/Budinger (+550) to podium. The two teams are fighting for the second Olympic spot for the USA, and both teams have some work left to be done to secure a top 17 Olympic Qualification spot. Hodges and Schubert also great value at +800 to finish top 3.
Should be a good one, qualifiers start tomorrow. Look for a livestream watch-a-long sometime Friday or Saturday over on the Bet The Beach YouTube page.
Chris DeTurk – March 5, 2024
Bet The Beach 
Leave a comment