Qualifying for the Paris Olympic Games officially begins Wednesday with the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite 16 held in — where else would we have a beach volleyball tournament these days? — Doha, Qatar.
I also provided a primer on how the 2024 Olympic beach volleyball qualifying process works on the SANDCAST YouTube Channel. The most important aspects you need to know are:
- Olympic qualifying begins Wednesday and will end on June 9, 2024. Typically, Ostrava hosts around that time, so it’s likely that the Ostrava Elite 16 will be the final event of the qualifying process.
- Olympic rankings are different from your entry rankings (best three out of your previous four), which are different from the World Rankings (best eight from the last 365 days) which are different from the Beach Pro Tour Finals rankings (best eight from the season). The AVP has no bearing on any of those rankings.
- The Olympic rankings consist of your top 12 finishes throughout the Olympic qualifying period. You never drop a good finish, you can only push bad finishes out with better ones. Volume tends to be the preferred strategy amongst teams on the cusp (see: Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil, 2021).
- The Olympic Games will be held in Paris, France, for the first time since 1924, on July 26-August 11.
Welcome to 2024 Beach Volleyball Olympicology.
Men’s Olympic Beach predictions
World Championship bid: David Ahman, Jonatan Hellvig, Sweden
French Wild Card: Remi Bassereau, Julien Lyneel, France
NORCECA Continental Bid: Noslen Diaz, Jorge Alayo, Cuba
African Continental Bid: Ainadino Martinho, Jorge Monjane, Mozambique
South American Continental Bid: Marco Grimalt, Esteban Grimalt, Chile, with help from Noe Aravena and Vicente Droguett.
Europe Continental Bid: Marco Krattiger, Florian Breer, Switzerland, with help from Yves Haussener and Quentin Metral.
Asian Continental Bid: Thomas Hodges, Zac Schubert, Australia, with help from Mark Nicolaidis and Izac Carracher.
Olympic Rankings bids
- Anders Mol, Christian Sorum, Norway
- Alex Brouwer, Robert Meeuwsen, Netherlands
- Michal Bryl, Bartosz Losiak, Poland
- George Wanderley, Andre Loyola, Brazil
- Cherif Samba, Ahmed Tijan, Qatar
- Ondrej Perusic, David Schweiner, Czech Republic
- Paolo Nicolai, Samuele Cottafava, Italy
- Stefan Boermans, Matthew Immers/Yorick de Groot, Netherlands
- Adrian Carambula, Alex Ranghieri, Italy
- Tri Bourne, Chaim Schalk, United…
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