Olympics Seaside
October 17, 2024
That is one in a collection previewing the inductees going into the Worldwide Volleyball Corridor of Fame in Holyoke, Massachusetts, on Saturday.
This 12 months there are 9 inductees, two indoor gamers in Italian Andrea Zorzi and Cuba’s Regla Bell; two seaside gamers in American Tim Hovland and Brazilian Ana Paula Henkel; Brazilian coach Jose “Ze” Roberto and ParaVolley coach Hadi Rezaei of Iran; two officers in Argentinian Juan Angel Pereyra and American Sue Lemaire; and Italian Giuseppe Panini, who’s going in as a frontrunner.
There are additionally three particular honoree classes acknowledged this 12 months: John Kessel is receiving the Mintonette Medallion of Benefit Award; Invoice Kauffman and Ed Chan are being honored posthumously with the inaugural Award for Media Excellence; and Michael Kane, Mike Knapik, Aaron Vega and Don Humason are receiving the Mayoral Award of Excellence.
On this period of specialization, it’s profoundly onerous to fathom simply how nice an accomplishment it’s to have made it to the top of each the seaside and indoor disciplines of our sport. More durable nonetheless, even to think about an athlete doing it in Brazil, the place their ladies’s Olympic groups since 1996 (when seaside was launched as an Olympic sport), have gained extra whole medals mixed within the two disciplines than another nation (13, the USA has gained 12).
After which there may be Ana Paula Henkel. She made TWO Olympic groups in EACH sport representing her native nation. She not solely straddled these two disciplines successfully, but additionally made the transition on the seaside from aspect out/massive courtroom, to rally scoring/small courtroom in a meritorious profession that spanned 19 whole years of world-class volleyball. And there’s extra, far more. She will be able to throw a depraved roundhouse punch AND she is likely one of the foremost political commentators in Brazil.
We’ll get to all of that.
Is it any marvel then that Ana Paula was the highest fan vote getter by far of any member of the 2024 induction class to the Worldwide Volleyball Corridor of Fame? Whereas Henkel is being inducted as a seaside participant, like fellow ’24 IVHF class member, Tim Hovland, she lower fairly a swath within the indoor sport, as nicely.
“I began to shake like I used to be 15 years previous,” Henkel stated, when George Mulry, govt director of the Worldwide Volleyball Corridor of Fame, knowledgeable her of the IVHF’s Board of Administrators’ choice. “My legs had been shaking.
“My face was burning. I couldn’t management myself. A number of faces got here to my thoughts about individuals who helped me get thus far. My father, he’s not with us (anymore), and he was all the time my No. 1 fan and my mentor. He believed in me greater than my very own desires. He stated daily ‘You’re going to do it!’ ”
A 6-foot center blocker, Henkel made her first Olympic crew in 1992, at simply 20, and helped the Canarinhas end fourth, to that time the very best putting ever for a Brazil ladies’s crew within the quadrennial spectacle. 4 years later, she was a bona fide star on the crew that gained a bronze medal, Brazil’s first ever at a ladies’s indoor Olympics. The semifinal match, with a spot within the championship on the road, proved to be particularly thrilling and contentious.
“Every little thing was wonderful with them (Cuba) till we began to beat them,” Ana Paula recalled. “We had been the No. 1 and a pair of groups on the planet on the time of the ’96 Olympics. However even earlier than then, they began to yell issues throughout the online at us (to attempt to intimidate us).”
Brazil and Cuba had been seeded to fulfill one another within the gold medal match. However Cuba misplaced twice in pool play, as soon as to Brazil, after which unexpectedly once more to Russia.
So, the 2 volleyball powerhouses met within the semifinals as a substitute. Cuba gained the final two video games, and the match, 15-13, 15-12. After which it obtained REALLY attention-grabbing. A spew of vitriol was adopted by a bodily confrontation exterior the adjoining two locker rooms.
Mayhem ensued.
“Sure, I landed just a few punches,” Ana Paula laughed when she recalled the chaotic scene that was lastly damaged up by U.S. Marshals who had been stationed with the Cuban crew.
An impressed Holly McPeak, a seaside Olympian that 12 months, was one who took word.
“Ana Paula proved she was a fighter after they performed Cuba,” McPeak stated. “When she got here out on the seaside, she had a huge impact together with her stable all-around sport and measurement on the internet! Ana Paula might do all of it!”
Earlier than she headed to the sand although, Ana Paula was not finished with indoor. She was voted the MVP of the 1994 World Cup earlier than Atlanta, and was an integral a part of three Brazilian FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix (the precursor to what’s now the VNL) indoor title groups in 1994, 1996 and 1998. Henkel was awarded finest blocker in ’96, after which two years later was tabbed as the highest spiker and blocker.
And but in any case that success, on the age of 27, Henkel made her main pivot to the sand in 1999.
“My sport was plateauing,” Ana Paula stated. “The bodily price was too excessive. Stress fractures all over the place, knees, shins and ft. My backbone and discs had been misplaced. In 1998 I wanted a knee surgical procedure after the World Championships. The physician instructed doing rehab on the seaside. I had by no means performed on the sand earlier than that.”
On the time, the reigning Olympic champion Jackie Silva wanted a apply companion. And Ana Paula was more than pleased to oblige.
“Doing heavy coaching on the seaside, I felt like my physique was 10 years youthful,” Henkel stated. “I felt like I used to be 20 once more as a result of I used to be enjoying on the sand.”
Silva was duly impressed with the beginner, and how briskly she picked up the intricacies of the seaside sport. It led them to play some tournaments collectively underneath the watchful eye of Marcos Miranda, the supervisor of the Brazilian indoor nationwide crew who additionally served because the nation’s seaside coach as nicely. Miranda was satisfied Ana Paula had all the abilities to play seaside. He additionally taught her one thing that turned her most deadly weapon.
“I got here from completely no one as a leap server indoors. I served underneath the online half the time!” she stated with amusing. “I turned one of the best server on the seaside due to the those who skilled me (together with Miranda).”
Ana Paula had no bother discovering world-class companions. After Silva, in 2000 she connected with Atlanta silver medalist Monica Rodrigues, and in simply her second full 12 months on the FIVB World Tour, Ana Paula netted her first win with Rodrigues in Cagliari, Italy.
Three years later, in ’03, Henkel teamed with Silva’s Atlanta gold medal teammate Sandra Pires, they usually barnstormed the world, showing in eight finals out of ten tournaments, successful 4 of them, and capturing the coveted honor of FIVB Tour Champions. Ana Paula additionally gained the primary of her 5 consecutive awards because the Finest Server on the Tour.
That 2003 marketing campaign appeared like an ideal setup to a wonderful run at an Olympic medal in Athens. But it surely was to not be. The bugaboo of all nice athletes, accidents, compromised Ana Paula and Sandra’s run to a medal. A stunning pool play loss to Germany, was adopted by a loss within the quarterfinals to their Brazilian compatriots, Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar, 15-13 within the third.
“(Main as much as the Video games) Sandra had a calf damage and couldn’t leap correctly. I had a stress fracture in my proper wrist so I couldn’t flip my wrist to leap serve or handset. However as a result of we had been attempting to qualify for Athens (2004 Olympic Summer season Video games), we didn’t cease, and it obtained worse and worse.”
Bloodied, however unbowed, Ana Paula continued ahead. Her nice present was adaptability. In Henkel’s 11-year professional seaside worldwide profession she gained with 5 totally different companions, most ever amongst feminine OR male gamers. Along with Rodrigues and Pires, Henkel additionally gained with Leila Barros, and each of the Bedes, Shelda and Shaylyn.
And it was that versatility that performed a job in Ana Paula’s beautiful return to the Olympic Video games in Beijing in 2008. The dominant Brazilian crew on the time was Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Maestrini. That they had locked up the primary of the 2 spots on provide nicely forward of time and had been formidable challengers on paper to Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty Might-Treanor the defending Olympic gold medalists. In the meantime, Renata Ribeiro and Talita Antunes locked up the quantity two Brazilian berth. That choice was made earlier than Ana Paula and Shelda gained the ultimate two pre-Olympic tournaments, in Gstaad and Klagenfurt, two of essentially the most prestigious stops on tour. However, they had been on the skin wanting in.
Besides, possibly not. A wild flip of occasions ensued. Juliana, the blocker, injured her anterior cruciate ligament in a event in June in Paris, two months earlier than the Video games, however continued to play in pre-Olympic tournaments.
“Juliana had obtained a knee brace from Germany and was all set to play within the Olympics,” Ana Paula recalled. “In the meantime, I had been partying since I had gotten again to Brazil from Klagenfurt.”
It was three days till the beginning of the Olympics.
“At 6 a.m. my sister was shaking me and yelling ‘Stand up, rise up. There’s a federation individual on the door saying you need to go to China!’ ”
It turned out that Juliana in truth was too banged as much as play, and rapidly Brazil’s No. 1 crew was brief a blocker.
“I arrived in China and went straight to the technical assembly at 2:30 pm the day earlier than competitors was to begin,” Ana Paula stated. “I had by no means practiced with Larissa, by no means even exchanged a phrase together with her, and now we had been teammates and roommates.”
Contemplating all the drama main as much as first serve, Henkel and Larissa acquitted themselves fairly admirably, ending fifth in Beijing.
“After the Olympics, Larissa despatched me a gorgeous heartfelt letter that I’ve saved ever since,” Henkel stated.
Ana Paula continued to play for a pair extra seasons on the FIVB World Tour along with branching out and enjoying on the AVP in America.
And shortly thereafter, the third act of the Ana Paula Henkel story started.
“My father was a principal at an American faculty in Brazil, and was often known as a real drawback solver,” Henkel stated. “There was a trainer’s strike, and he stated to himself out loud: ‘What would Reagan do?’ ”
That began Ana Paula on a path that in the end led to a brand new flourishing profession.
“I questioned, who was this man my father was calling out to for steerage,” Henkel stated. “Who’s ‘this Reagan’ and my dad began telling me who ‘this Reagan’ was.”
“I began to voice my opinion extra about Brazil after I moved to the USA,” Henkel continued. “I fell in love with American historical past. And I wished to use a few of these teachings and learnings to Brazil.”
Ana Paula first began to jot down opinion items on Fb. It didn’t take lengthy for Brazilian mainstream media to take discover. Estadão, the third largest newspaper in Brazil, gave her the platform, and that was only the start.
At the moment she is a commentator/author for the multimedia web site “Revista Oeste.” It’s a web site with 24/7 information, and Ana Paula additionally has a YouTube present airing 5 days every week for 2 hours at a clip, that reaches greater than half 1,000,000 viewers each day. And in her spare time, what little there may be, she is writing a e-book about…Ronald Reagan in fact!
She does all of this work from the South Bay, California, dwelling that she shares with husband Carl Henkel. If that identify seems acquainted, it ought to. Carl made the USA Seaside Olympic crew with companion Sinjin Smith in 1996, and their quarterfinal match towards fellow People, Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes, is one among, if not the, biggest seaside volleyball match in USA historical past.
Nearly as superb, within the remaining pre-Olympic event in Ostende, Belgium, 4 years later in 2000, Henkel enjoying with Smith once more, completed in second, forward of all three groups that will in the end sweep the medals a little bit over a month later in Sydney on the summer time Video games. The authorized career’s acquire, although, was seaside volleyball’s loss as Carl transitioned to a profession within the regulation full-time in 2003.
Each Ana Paula and Carl have youngsters from prior marriages and Carl’s daughter, Victoria, is a 5-11 freshman on the LSU seaside volleyball crew.
Ana Paula expresses gratitude for all elements of her life, each on the courtroom and off, and doesn’t let any of the accolades, reward or accomplishments get to her head.
“For something in life, if you win, win, win it may be addictive,” Henkel cautions. “However it might additionally disguise plenty of traps that you simply don’t see.”
Looks as if Ana Paula has finished a exceptional job wanting round these corners her total life.