Which beach volleyball pairs will take Olympic gold at Tokyo 2020?

As the sand starts to heat up at Tokyo 2020, so does the competition. With beach legends coming face-to-face with Olympic newbys, the potential winners start to emerge. 

But who will be able to make it through the preliminaries and then onto the semifinals? Only time will tell, but we can at least predict a few teams who have a shot at winning a medal this year. 

So who do we think will win the gold, silver and bronze medals in the beach volleyball competition at this year’s Olympic Games? 

Women’s Beach Volleyball Tournament

Bronze – Agatha/Duda (BRA)

In the Provisional Olympic Rankings on FIVB’s website, this brazilian duo is in third place. I think they are a great team with a lot of potential, but I’m not sure their connection is quite there yet as a team. If they stay together for another Olympic cycle, I think they would be the team to beat. Yet, with how good the teams are this year, I think Brazil will have to settle for a bronze medal. 

Agatha has the Olympic experience that will serve her and Duda well in the preliminaries and onto the more competitive matches. She won a silver medal last year, and I can only imagine that she will be chasing the gold medal this year. Agatha’s presence on the net is also something the other teams have to watch out for because she seems to be everywhere and block everything. Duda is also a fantastic player with big swings and great defense. This Brazilian duo is not one to sleep on because they will definitely be in the running to win a medal this year. 

Silver – Pavan/Humana-Paredes (CAN)

For the final match in the women’s beach volleyball competition, I believe it’s going to be between the Canadians and the Americans. I’m putting Pavan and Melissa in the second place position because I think they are skilled, but history has shown us that the USA duo of Alix and April can pull out a win over the Canadians in the tournament setting. 

Pavan has the years of experience behind her and height to help her in each match. She’s not only tall, but quick too and is a force at the net. Melissa is small in size, but that doesn’t mean she can’t be a threat in this game. She’s able to move around really well in the back court and pick up lots of trick shots and hard hits. She’s also able to place the ball and hit hard when needed when she’s attacking. I think they will put up a hard fight…