Olympic Beach Volleyball Rankings, updated April 29

The race for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games officially began in February 2023 in Doha, Qatar, with the Volleyball World Elite16. The 2024 season began the first week of March back in Doha, and the final event of the Olympic qualification cycle will be the Ostrava Elite16, which ends on June 9. We’ll be providing these updates for the Beach Volleyball Olympic rankings after international points-earning tournaments:

There is no sense in attempting to make sense of the Grimalt Cousins, Marco and Esteban, of Chile. It’s best to stop trying. Sometimes it’s best to simply sit back and enjoy the most mercurial team on the Beach Pro Tour. This 2024 season has been a wonderful snapshot of the enigmatic conundrum that is the Grimalts: two first-round qualifier losses in Challenges, a solid showing at the Tepic Elite16 but nothing extraordinary, and then a stunning gold medal at this past weekend’s Xiamen Challenge. Four straight matches did they win in three sets, all requiring comebacks after dropping the first.

The gold in Xiamen marks their first medal of the Olympic qualification period, and their first medal since winning a similarly stunning gold at the Gstaad Elite16 in 2022. The 800 points they picked up boosted them to No. 21 in the Olympic rankings. If the Paris Olympics were to happen today, they’d be in.

There is also, for the time being, little sense in attempting to make a guess at who will win the Swiss women’s race. As soon as Anouk Verge-Depre and Joana Mader seemed primed to claim the spot, it was retaken by Zoe Verge-Depre and Esmee Bobner in Guadalajara, where they won their first gold medal as a team. And then — after Nina Brunner and Tanja Huberli made it two straight Swiss golds in Tepic — Anouk and Mader made a finals run in Xiamen, jumping Zoe and Bobner yet again, holding onto an 80-point edge.

For all of the fun that can be had with predictions and breakdowns and analysis, sometimes it’s best to simply enjoy the wild ride this Olympic race is taking with four events remaining.

Men’s Beach Volleyball Olympic Rankings

(updated April 29 after the Xiamen Challenge)

1. David Ahman, Jonatan Hellvig, SWEDEN, 11220 (10)
2. Anders Mol, Christian Sorum, NORWAY, 10460 (10)
3. Nils Ehlers, Clemens Wickler, GERMANY, 9540 (12)
4. Andre Loyola, George Wanderley, BRAZIL, 9480 (12)
5. Sam Cottafava, Paolo Nicolai, ITALY, 8800 (12)
6. Evandro Goncalves, Arthur Mariano, BRAZIL, 8660 (12)
7. Ondrej Perusic, David Schweiner, Czech Republic, 8380 (9)
8. Alex Brouwer, Robert…