With last week’s drawing of the lots, the field for the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour World Championships has been set. Eight USA teams will be making the trip to Tlaxcala, Mexico this October 6-15 to compete for the biggest non-Olympic title in the sport — and a share of the $1 million purse.
Before we begin breaking down the pools, a little primer on the format: 48 teams per gender are split into 12 pools of four, which will operate in a round robin format in which everyone plays everyone in their pool.
The top two teams in each pool and the best four third-place teams will move directly to the round of 32. The remaining eight third-place teams will play in a lucky loser round to fill the last four spots in the elimination rounds. It remains single-elimination through the finals, which were won by Norway’s Anders Mol and Christian Sorum, and Brazil’s Duda Lisboa and Ana Patricia Silva in 2022.
What’s on the line?
The total purse for the event is $1 million, a sizable bounty that’ll motivate anyone. More important — to some, anyway — are the points available for the taking. With the Olympic race more than halfway over, the cutoff date being June 9, 2024, there is no single event with as many points on the line as the World Championships. The winners will rake in 1,600, 400 more than a gold medal at an Elite16 will get you. Anything in the top 10 will be a useful finish for an Olympic hopeful.
A bad finish won’t necessarily break any teams, but it can certainly separate several from the peloton. The winner of the event also earns a berth into the 2024 Paris Olympic Games for their federation.
Yes, you read that correct: The bid goes to the federation, not the team. If, for example, Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles win the World Championships, the bid is not given to them. It’s given to USA Volleyball, which does not guarantee that bid to Flint and Scoles. They would still need to beat out their countrywomen — Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, Kristen Nuss Taryn Kloth, Sarah Sponcil and Terese Cannon, Alix Klineman and Hailey Harward — for the spot.
While winning a World Championship and not qualifying on points is roughly the equivalent of catching the golden snitch and not winning in quidditch, it’s still a possible scenario, especially in the USA women’s race. The exact scenario mentioned above is really the only one I can imagine in which that…
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