TLAXCALA, MEXICO — Theo Brunner had to know. The masochist.
“Three fourths,” he said, shaking his head after a second straight loss at the 2023 Beach Volleyball World Championships. “Has anyone ever done that?”
No. That honor is Brunner’s alone.
Not only has nobody ever finished fourth at the World Championships thrice — nobody, prior to this weekend, had ever even done it twice, although Trevor Crabb can now lay claim to that strange, incredible yet painful title, after finishing fourth in Hamburg in 2019 as well.
“Dude,” Crabb said. “F—ing fourth.”
Sunday was a brutal finish to an otherwise brilliant tournament for Crabb and Brunner, a second straight loss, this one at the hands of Poland’s Bartosz Losiak and Michal Bryl (17-21, 18-21). Brunner, in the immediate moments after, the sting still fresh, found the proper perspective.
A week ago, they almost took 37th.
Fourth seems quite nice when compared to that.
“We were lucky to get out of pool alive,” he said, referencing one of the wildest nights of the tournament, when Chase Budinger and Miles Evans beat Ukraine’s Sergiy Popov and Eduard Reznik by such a margin (16) that Brunner and Crabb’s match against Brazil’s Andre and George suddenly became an elimination match. They had no idea, and fill-in coach Paul Lotman made sure that nobody told them as much. There was no reason to add untold amounts of pressure to an already pressure-filled tournament.
They survived against Andre and George, the 2022 World Championship bronze medalists and, by extension, survived the tournament. Lotman made an excellent call in not allowing Brunner and Crabb to know they were in a do-or-die. That night, when the playoff brackets were released, he made the gravest of coaching faux pas: “Nice draw.” (he’s a rookie coach; forgive him).
“We told him to shut up,” Brunner recalled, laughing, understanding the laws of the beach volleyball universe, knowing you can never make such a statement out loud, for the second you proclaim a draw to be friendly or nice or easy, that draw suddenly becomes the one that sends you packing early. But Lotman was right. Relative to the rest of the bracket, it was the easiest road available, one that included a pair of talented but not-quite-elite Australian teams and an aging Pedro Salgado.
They took advantage with three straight sweeps and two shots at a medal.
“In retrospect, it was a good draw, but it’s different…
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