HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. — We are roughly at the mid-point of this 2023 season, and roughly 12 months away from the final event of the Paris Olympic race. Given those two notes, our semi-monthly SANDCAST beach volleyball mailbag was awfully full, and I won’t waste any more of your time with a lengthy introduction.
We’re getting straight to business.
Are the Taylors still making an Olympic run?
The Olympic race is a long and somewhat complicated process. There are three ways to earn bids — points, wild card, continental berth — in a three-tiered system that is making its Olympic qualifying process debut of sorts. Nobody really knows the proper strategy. Do you play every Elite16 you can, with the potential for massive points but also the high risk of a poor finish in a brutal qualifier that is hardly a litmus test of your ability as a team? Or do you cruise in Challenges, where the draws are a smidge easier, the potential to at least make some money higher, but the points not as big? Everybody’s strategy is constantly changing.
I don’t know, exactly, what Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander have in mind as far as the Olympic race goes. I do know that they are not playing this weekend’s Jurmala Challenge in Latvia because it’s a one-off event in Europe that costs more than $3,000 to get to — not to mention hotel, food, taxis, and opportunity cost — and, when one does the simple math of points and finances, it just doesn’t make a ton of sense. So they’re waiting for Challenges in Espinho and Edmonton and they’ll see where they stand from there.
Will they qualify for World Championships? Even if they win both Espinho and Edmonton, which isn’t likely, given they’ll begin both events in the qualifier, they probably won’t. Not qualifying for World Championships, the tournament with the most points on the line, is a devastating blow to anyone’s pursuit of an Olympic Games. So no, they’re not in great shape to qualify for Paris, but as Tri Bourne said on the podcast, “I’m assuming yes [they’re still going for Paris] until they tell me no. That’s hard to comprehend that would be the case. I’m not turning my back on those guys.”
It’s also important to note that the Olympics, while a goal for most, and certainly the goal that most fans want for the players, might not be the biggest one for the players themselves. When Crabb qualified…
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