The Road to the Paris Olympics begins

This week feels a bit like Iowa.

At the onset of every presidential election cycle, the national media descends upon the state known mostly for corn and sour cream, and the election frenzy begins. Given that it is but one caucus, and other days like Super Tuesday are massively influential, it is a relatively insignificant state in the grand scheme of things.

What is significant is that it is first, and that is important.

Doha, like Iowa, is first this weekend, and that is important.

The Olympic qualification cycle for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games begins on Wednesday in Doha, Qatar, host of the first Beach Pro Tour event of the 2023 season. Like Iowa, in the grand scheme of things, the points accumulated in Doha will be relatively insignificant and minor in their impact. It helps explain why all four of the top American men’s teams — Tri Bourne and Chaim Schalk, Trevor Crabb and Theo Brunner, Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander, Miles Partain and Andy Benesh — are sitting this one out.

But the frenzy begins regardless. And it still presents a substantial opportunity for Evan Cory and Logan Webber, and Tim Brewster and Kyle Friend, the only two American men’s teams who traveled and who wouldn’t otherwise find themselves in an Elite 16 field. At the time of this writing, Cory and Webber are seeded seventh in the qualifier, while Brewster and Friend, after a long wait on the reserve list, are 11. (By Wednesday morning, that will likely change).

The American women have taken a visibly different approach to Olympic qualifying, perhaps given the more competitive nature of their Olympic race. Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, on the backs of a $150,000 gold medal at the Beach Pro Tour Finals, have remained in Doha for the Elite 16, as have Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth, fifth-place finishers at the Finals who earned a $20,000 check.

Cheng and Hughes, however, will begin the Elite 16 in the main draw, seeded second, alongside eleventh-seeded Sarah Sponcil and Terese Cannon, while Nuss and Kloth are currently No. 2 in the qualifier. Emily Stockman and Megan Kraft are 8, with a likely first round matchup against TCU’s Spaniards, Daniela Alvarez and Tania Moreno, they of the fantastic run through the Hamburg Elite 16 quarterfinals. Rounding out the qualifier is 16th-seeded Savvy Simo and Toni Rodriguez, who did a little due diligence on social media and knew…