Itapema, Brazil, is not an easy place to get to. The first flight will take you either to Dallas or Houston or maybe, if you’re going especially far out of the way, Chicago. That initial jaunt across the U.S. precedes the longest stint, to Sao Paulo, where passengers will be met with a layover ranging from two-and-a-half hours to 10. Then there is a quick flight to Navegantes, and a winding, 40-minute cab down to Itapema, a town that is to Brazil what, say, Myrtle Beach is to America: quiet, touristy, good eats on the boardwalk.
It is a fitting metaphor for what this Olympic journey is like to those traveling: Long, expensive, and, if all goes as planned, entirely worth it.
It explains why there are 11 American teams — five men, six women — at the Volleyball World Itapema Challenge, more than half of which will begin in Thursday’s qualifier. Some, like Zana Muno, are hungry enough for international points that she’s willing to go in spite of her partner, Kerri Walsh Jennings, pulling out last minute with an injury, so she subbed in Allie Wheeler on just a few days’ notice.
“So bummed to not be taking the court with Kerri these next two weeks but we are flexible,” Muno wrote on social media. “I am beyond grateful for Allie Wheeler for taking a risk on us and agreeing to play with me and make the trip to Brazil on such short notice!”
Indeed, on notice short or long, the qualifiers on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour are not for the faint of heart. Muno and Wheeler, at the time of this writing, are the 22 seed in the Itapema Challenge, the lowest of the Americans. Savvy Simo and Toni Rodriguez, fresh off a silver medal at the La Paz Challenge, are the 18, and Corinne Quiggle and Sarah Schermerhorn are the 3.
Four American men will begin in the qualifier, highlighted by the 2023 beach debut of Miles Partain and Andy Benesh, who played three Beach Pro Tour events in 2022 and won a gold medal in Dubai in October. Three spots below them are Chase Budinger and Miles Evans, playing in their first international event together after a promising debut in Miami, where they finished second to Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander.
The Taylors, as they have come to be known, are another seven spots down from Budinger and Evans. Six spots below them are Evan Cory and
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