How many times had Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler come so close they could taste it — only to leave parched and starved?
In four events in 2024 alone Germany had made a semifinal, yet only once had they returned home with a medal. The other three? The most agonizing finish in beach volleyball: fourth.
No medal.
No podium.
Just two bitter losses to swallow before the next tournament while the princes of the beach volleyball world, Sweden’s David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig, would be crowned once more.
On Thursday evening at the Paris Olympic Games, Ehlers and Wickler alas took the step forward they’d been positioning themselves to do for almost a full year, stunning Norway’s Anders Mol and Christian Sorum (21-13, 17-21, 15-13) to earn a berth into the gold medal match, where they will meet Sweden.
Ehlers and Wickler’s string of fourths this season is an apt comparison to how they’ve played Mol and Sorum prior to Thursday’s semifinal. Six times had they met, and six times had they lost. But the overall record belied how closely the two played one another. Half of them went the full three sets. Only once, at the 2022 European Championships, did Norway win both sets by more than two.
They were as close to even as two teams with such a lopsided head-on-head record could be.
Germany couldn’t have picked a better occasion to beat Norway, the Tokyo Olympics gold medalists, for the first time. In a rematch of the Vienna Elite16 semifinals just two weeks ago, it was played in a remarkably similar manner, Germany jumping out to a commanding first-set win (21-16 in Vienna, 21-13 in Paris), Norway recovering as they do (21-15 in Vienna, 21-17 in Paris), all culminating in a tense third set that could go either way.
On Thursday, thanks for magnificent play from Wickler, one of the best defenders of his generation, and consistency from Ehlers, Germany alas prevailed, 15-13, squeaking out the final point on a net violation on Mol in which his leg clipped the bottom of the net on a block that would have tied it at 14-14.
Germany challenged, and the replay showed Mol hitting the net, confirming an emotional win for Germany that left both Ehlers and Wickler on their hands and knees in disbelief.
Ehlers and Wickler are now guaranteed their first Olympic medals, the first for the German men since Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann won gold in London in 2012. What color…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Volleyballmag.com…