“Emancipate yourselves from psychological slavery. None however ourselves can free our minds.”
— — “Redemption Music,” Bob Marley 1980
The World Championships in Tlaxcala, Mexico proved to be a cosmically redemptive expertise for a lot of, however most particularly for Sara Hughes, Ondrej Perusic, David Schweiner, Jonatan Hellvig, and final, however not least, USA Volleyball as a complete.
There are additionally some modifications the beach-volleyball world has to make and we’ll get to that later and in addition provide some complaints and suggestions.
The Olympic qualifying course of is closely skewed to these groups that may pile up factors within the 12 months BEFORE the Video games. In 2018, Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng break up, and Hughes partnered with Summer time Ross. Ross was a teen prodigy, and on the floor this seemed like a unit that may qualify for Tokyo when you think about Hughes and Ross performed 4 AVP tournaments in 2018, profitable twice, and misplaced within the finals the opposite two occasions. On the World Tour that summer time they received in Moscow, knocking out April Ross and Alix Klineman within the quarters and Agatha and Duda within the finals.
As 2019 dawned, Hughes and Ross received a few thirds in AVP occasions, a 3rd and a fourth in World Tour occasions, and a really strong fifth within the World Champs in Hamburg.
However not all was properly in Hamburg.
I noticed Hughes have an animated dialogue with then-coach Jose Loiola within the bleachers bisecting courts 2 and three. You knew at that time one thing was up. And certain sufficient, it was: Ross’ balky again was inflicting main issues and after two extra tourneys she retired from the game completely at simply 27.
In the meantime, Hughes was caught in a horrible quandary as a result of “system” that rewards not the most well liked groups on this planet come the Olympics, however the ones which have prevented accidents, and performed essentially the most tournaments, in order that they will drop their worst finishes, to amass sufficient factors to qualify. So, for the pandemic-delayed 2021 Video games in Tokyo, Hughes was, as they are saying, SOL.
What adopted was two years of battling via the wilderness. With all the highest gamers taken, Hughes fought the great combat. In 2021 she misplaced in FIVE consecutive country-quota qualifiers, not even sniffing the principle draw enjoying with Emily Day.
Temporary partnerships with Megan Kraft, and Terese Cannon adopted. A Manhattan Open win with Kelley Kolinske salved some wounds, however that tourney didn’t present factors in direction of Olympic qualifying. However shortly thereafter, her merry-go-round lastly stopped. The reunion with Cheng couldn’t come at a extra opportune time, and the remaining, as they are saying, is historical past.
Redemption music certainly for Sara Hughes.
The Olympic-qualifying course of is premature
The prolonged Olympic qualifying course of mitigates towards getting any workforce that clicks and finds their stride within the couple of months earlier than the Video games. It’s ridiculous that reigning Olympic gold medalist Alix Klineman principally has no shot to defend her title, and we’re 9 months out from the precise Video games in Paris. And, by the best way, regardless of being eradicated in pool play, Klineman, teamed with Hailey Harward, herself performed very, very properly in Tlaxcala.
If it was already 2024, Miles Partain and Andy Benesh would seemingly not have certified for the Video games by not having the minimal requisite tournaments. The USA swimming, gymnastics, and monitor and area groups are all chosen six weeks out from the Video games, as a result of these federations need the most well liked, most in-form athletes to signify the purple, white and blue. This isn’t in any respect USA Volleyball’s fault, however as a substitute it’s the FIVB’s system. An ingenious system to make sure. It ensures that Elite16 tournaments can be strongly fortified with prime groups as a result of it’s one of the simplest ways to construct up the requisite level totals for Olympic qualification.
Klineman just isn’t the one nice who can be lacking in motion in Paris. Sophie Bukovec, a Canadian, driving excessive after final 12 months’s silver medal on the Worlds with Brandie Wilkerson, can also be prone to be on the surface trying in when it comes time to first serve in Paris in July.
Even should you do make the Olympic Video games, catastrophe can strike on the most inopportune time. Simply ask Czech World gold medalists David Schweiner and Ondrej Perusic. Within the spring of 2021 they had been enjoying the perfect seashore volleyball of their lives. Some pundits even had them medaling in Tokyo, contemplating they received an enormous four-star tourney in Doha in March, after which took second in a four-star in Ostrava, taking out eventual Tokyo silver medalists Vyacheslav Krasilnikov and large Oleg Stoyanovskiy. The Czechs had been peaking on the proper time.
They had been in Tokyo, preparing for his or her first match towards Latvians Edgar Tocs and Martins Plavins. After which catastrophe struck. A optimistic COVID take a look at, and a first-round pool-play forfeit. With solely three matches in pool play to start with, they had been screwed! They had been cleared for the second match, which they received, however then they needed to face the Russians, Stoyanovskiy and Krasilnikov. It went three, however the Czechs, who wanted to be good, weren’t and had been despatched packing.
After the Olympics, Schweiner and Perusic went on a tear, profitable in Prague and getting a runner-up end in Cagliari in October, 2021. Within the latter occasion, the Czechians misplaced to Anders Mol and Christian Sorum, 22-20, 23-21. No disgrace in dropping to the Volley Vikings. But it surely began a disturbing pattern for Schweiner and Perusic: Their incapability to shut out in finals. What adopted was a loss in Itapema in April 2022 to Andre Loyola and George Wanderley, 15-12 within the third. Within the subsequent tourney, a month later in Ostrava, Mol and Sorum got here again and received 21-15, 21-23, 15-13. The Czechs headed to the Elite16 in Gstaad. And so they suffered one other tight finals loss to the Grimalt cousins, 19-21, 20-22.
The turning level for Schweiner and Perusice seemed to be in Uberlandia in April of this 12 months. They received the monkeys off their backs by upending the Volley Vikings within the closing, 15-11 within the third. After which within the closing match earlier than the Worlds, in Paris, Perusic and Schweiner ran the desk, beating an excellent German workforce, Clemens Wickler and Nils Ehlers within the closing. It was an emotional victory for the Czech duo. There was a hitch although. The Paris closing was on October 1 and the Worlds began 5 days later in Apizaco, Mexico, 9,124 kilometers and some airline connections away (5,670 miles).
Certain sufficient, the Paris hangover hit instantly for the drained Czechians. That they had a Pool I loss to the Thirty third-seeded Cubans Jorge Alayo and Noslen Diaz. Two matches later, Perusic and Schweiner laid one other egg, dropping to Evandro and Arthur of their closing pool match.
They escaped the dreaded Fortunate Losers playoff, however as third-placers of their pool they drew Pool H winners Adrian Gavira and Pablo Herrera within the single-elimination spherical.
They caught fireplace, rediscovering their Paris groove. They bounced Daniele Lupo and Enrico Rossi in two, however then needed to play the Volley Vikings and the losers of that match would take fifth. For context, within the final 5 years, Mol and Sorum had received 4 Euro golds and a bronze, a Worlds gold and a bronze, and Olympic gold. They solely missed one main podium since 2018, and that was in Vienna in August, a head-scratching fifth at Euros.
But, Perusic and Schweiner exorcised all of their previous demons, taking down the Vikings in three (15-12 within the third), proving to all, together with themselves, that they’re FOR REAL. Then within the gold-medal match they toppled the inheritor obvious to the Norwegians, the Swedes David Ahman and Jonatan Helvig, 15-13 within the third.
Schweiner and Perusic have undoubtedly figured it out. They’ll win the shut ones. They’ll sing the redemption music.
Talking of the younger Swedes, volleyball life has not been simple for them, both. Timing is every little thing, so think about that they got here into their very own simply AFTER the 2021 Olympic cycle. Then, after a robust begin to the 2022 season, Hellvig damage his hand, which necessitated a withdrawal from the Worlds in Rome. Lightning struck once more in June of this 12 months when Helvig collided with Ahman throughout a “hubby/spouse” play within the Elite16 in Gstaad, cracking a bone in the identical hand he damage earlier than. This time although, the restoration didn’t preclude the duo from making the journey to Mexico. Their high-wire, acrobatic fashion was a crowd favourite and after their two prior European titles and now a Worlds silver, they are going to be arriving subsequent summer time in Paris because the possible favorites.
Bounce-back for USA Volleyball
USA Volleyball took some hits after final 12 months’s Worlds in Rome, the place the People got here residence empty handed, with the perfect finishes a fourth on the boys’s facet by Chaim Schalk and Theo Brunner and a fifth from Kelley Kolinske and Sara Hughes. What a distinction a 12 months makes, an entire turnaround with two medals from the women and a fourth from Brunner and Trevor Crabb, in addition to a fifth from Miles Partain and Andy Benesh.
No different nation got here near the output of Staff USA. A particular redemption music for the purple, white and blue.
Furthermore, Benesh and Partain are on the verge. Benesh had a horrible passing sport at an inopportune second within the match towards Poland’s Bartosz Losiak and Michal Bryl that, had they received, would have superior them to the semis. Up till then, Benesh and Partain had been medical, with straight set wins in 4 of their 5 matches main as much as the quarterfinals. It will be good although if Miles and Andy at the very least seemed like they had been having a little bit extra enjoyable out on the courtroom. They want a shot of Pedro Solberg-Adrian Carambula “joie de vivre.”
On the one hand, it’s good to have a strong Worlds with 48 groups, however that being mentioned, of 144 matches in pool play, solely 29 went the gap — about 25%. Of the 12 swimming pools on the boys’s facet, solely two had been aggressive. For the ladies, it was 4. Just one important workforce received knocked out in pool play, Andre and George, the reigning bronze medalists from Brazil. Other than that, all these lengthy days of pool play had been decidedly ho-hum. A lowered area, and a lowered variety of days for the match would offer for extra high-level volleyball. Additionally, the present tie-breaking method for development is so complicated. We’d like the sport dummied down a bit so that you just don’t need to be a calculus main to determine who’s going to advance from pool play.
An inexpensive query to ask: Are the Worlds the 12 months earlier than the Olympics a superb predictor of success within the Video games themselves? The reply is a powerful sure. Solely as soon as, in 1999, has there not been a repeat medalist on the boys’s facet. Within the subsequent 5 Worlds the 12 months earlier than the Video games, two occasions there have been two repeat medalists and 3 times there was one workforce that accomplished the double.
It’s much more pronounced on the ladies’s facet. There has NEVER been a state of affairs the place there have been no repeat medalists from Worlds to Olympics. In truth, in 4 of the six occurrences, there have been two repeat medalists.
The web/internet is that anticipate the rostrum in Paris to look similar to Tlaxcala’s, which is superb information for Staff USA. Furthermore, with the late Worlds ending in mid-October of this 12 months, and the Olympics beginning in July of subsequent, there may be in all probability a fair stronger probability that the leaderboard will look related.
There must be modifications
On that notice, a Worlds in October basically implies that nobody exterior of volleyball fanatics such as you and me are paying consideration. Think about this occasion, nearly as good because it was, plopped down at a time when NFL and school soccer and Premiere League had been in full swing and MLB storylines had been sucking air out of the sports activities world, to say nothing of the beginning of NHL season, Victor Wenbenyama’s preseason NBA debut, Simone Biles historic efficiency on the World gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, and, properly, the FIVB and Volleyball World might have the truth is picked fairly probably the WORST time to carry this match.
For seashore volleyball to get any type of consideration from anybody except for the diehards, it’s greatest occasions should be in July and August, when competitors from different sports activities is minimized to a fantastic diploma. With the 2025 Worlds in Adelaide, Australia, good luck with that. As a result of it is going to be within the Southern Hemisphere in late spring or summer time the window is November on the earliest and March on the newest.
Like the opposite skilled sports activities, seashore volleyball wants a “season.” Ideally this may be April-Labor Day with its greatest tournaments occurring in July and August. One can solely assume that Volleyball World’s enterprise mannequin relies on high-quality tourneys going down ALL months of the 12 months in order that there is not going to be subscriber churn to their VBTV service.
Talking of VBTV, the announcers for essentially the most half had been glorious. The digicam positions had been good, though should you had been watching on an iPad, it was not possible at occasions to see if a ball landed in or out. The producers and administrators want to ensure framing is healthier to see the WHOLE area of play. As well as, when, as an illustration Adrian Carambula served a sky ball, it could have ben good if the digicam of us had adopted the flight of the ball. This additionally goes for top units … One closing critique of the protection is that lot of non-challengeable performs weren’t proven in replays. These included mishandled balls and the like. It’s instructional for the viewer to know, and see, what a chucked ball seems to be like in slo-mo. In all the opposite main professional sports activities, whether or not the ref makes the best or mistaken name, it’s proven to the viewer. Hey, we get it, refs are human, however the lack of transparency is regarding.
So far as the match itself, give credit score the place credit score is due. The FIVB/Volleyball World of us had been geniuses in selecting Tlaxcala and surrounding areas for the match to be carried out. The bullrings supplied a spectacular backdrop and gave one a way of place. The crowds appeared to be having a good time and the beer parts had been fairly beneficiant. The mascot, Lucy the firefly, with an enormous volleyball for the tail, was among the best mascots ever!
All that being mentioned, the Worlds NEED to be held in Santa Monica in 2027 as a prelude to the Olympics the next 12 months. There can be no higher approach to generate pleasure from the non-volleyball diehard and to spike curiosity from the following era on this planet’s greatest market.