The 2024 beach volleyball season kicked off this past weekend in Doha, Qatar with the first Beach Pro Tour Elite 16 of the year. We’ve talked plenty in recent weeks about the qualification cycle for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, France. Specifically, how these last 10 events (5 Elite 16’s and 5 Challenges) would determine the 17 teams per gender that will qualify for Paris based on the Olympic Point Ranking System. Click here for the updated Men’s Points Rankings. Click here for the updated Women’s Points Rankings. (One note, there are three points systems when you follow this link. Make sure you chose the tab on the far right for Olympic points.
Anyways, if you were betting along with us for Doha, and you were looking for a long-shot underdog to win it all, you may have had yourself a great weekend.
Netherlands’ Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot, at +4000 to win it all, made a dream run through pool play (beating Norway, Australia, and USA’s Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner). Then, they beat the home team (and defending Olympic Bronze Medalists) Cherif and Ahmed in the quarterfinals, beat Norway again in the semis before dismantling Sweden’s David Ahman and Jonathan Helvig in the finals, 21-11, 21-10. They’ve now set themselves alone as the number one team from their federation, leapfrogging Brouwer and Meeuwsen, who’ve held that spot going on 2 years. It was their first gold medal since Gstaad in July 2021.
On the women’s side, Brazil’s second team (Barbara and Carol), also at +4000 to win it all, won their first Elite 16 gold of the quad, backing up 3 Challenge golds from 2023. They won all three pool play matches in straight sets against a tough Switzerland team, Kloth and Nuss (USA) and an Italian team in Marta Menegatti and Valentina Gottardi that are playing their best volleyball. Brazil then dispatched Germany in the quarters, Kelly Cheng and Sarah Hughes (USA) in the semis, and Mel and Brandie (Canada) in 2 sets in the finals to take gold.
File under: Hot mic/quiet court. USA’s Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk faced off against Canada’s Sam Schachter and Dan Dearing in the first round of the qualis. Bourne had one of his best matches in 18 months, dominating at the net, controlling the game with his jump serve, and siding out effectively. The mics captured some good supportive talk between the USA pair, then a hotly contested net/under/reserve call at 2-0 in the 3rd set that Canada was not to pleased about.
Bourne and Schalk would go on to win their first round matchup with Canada and draw USA team (Chase Budinger and Miles Evans) in the 2nd round later that day. In a HUUUUUGE matchup in the race for the 2nd USA men’s Olympic spot, Chase and Miles outlasted Bourne and Schalk in an extremely entertaining USA/USA matchup. The loss effectively means Tri & Chaim are stuck in the qualifiers for the next few Challenge events in Brazil. Already well behind Crabb/Brunner and Evans/Budinger in the race for that 2nd spot, it’s a tough result for a Tri and Chaim who played some of their best beach volley in awhile.
For the USA teams, Evans and Budinger would then go 0-3 in pool play losing to Poland, Qatar, and Italy, and would not make the round of 12. Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner went 1-2 in pool play, but then lost to the Netherlands in the round of 12. TKN had a tough start to the season, going 1-2 in pool play and then losing to Switzerland’s Huberli and Brunner in the round of 12. Kelly Cheng and Sarah Hughes had the best result for the USA, losing to the eventual champions in the semis then beating Latvia’s Anastasija Samoilova and Tina Graudina in the bronze medal match.
Next up is a Challenge event in Recife, Brazil. Huge for that USA men’s race for the 2nd Olympic spot, as all three teams (Crabb/Brunner, Evans/Budinger, and Schalk/Bourne) are all on the entry list. All but Schalk and Bourne are direct into the main draw there.
- Perusic/Schweiner (CZE) +300
- George/Andre (BRA) +400
- Boermans/de Groot (NED) +400
- Evandro/Arthur (BRA) +600
- Crabb/Brunner (USA) +800
On the women’s side, the teams to watch closely are the ones on the Olympic bubble. With Brazil’s top two spots locked up, the teams with the most to win will lead our odds:
- Tina/Anastasija (LAT) +500
- Xue/X.Y. Xia (CHN) +600
- Ludwig/Lippman (GER) +600
- Agatha/Rebecca (BRA) +800
- Esmee/Zoe (SUI) +1000
Full disclosure: I’m headed down to Belize for 10 days and the above is the length and breadth of the Recife coverage you will get from us until our recap on March 26th. However, I do have a really, really fun blog ready for next week, as I live-blogged my first time watching the beach volleyball classic from 1990, the movie Sideout. I think you’ll enjoy it.
Chris DeTurk- March 12, 2024
Bet The Beach 
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