OFFICIAL MAGAZINE / #0511 / 2013 BEACH VOLLEYBALL IN 2013: A LOOK BACK AT THE YEAR THINK Feel EN_SMDIESEL_BRAND PRACTICALITY_297x210_FIVB_HONDA.indd 1 24/06/2013 15:06 EDITORIAL 1 Cover photo This month we look back upon what has been a competing on the highly successful and entertaining China’s Chen Xue diving for the thoroughly entertaining beach volleyball season – both South American tour. Mikasa at the Gstaad Open for the fans and the athletes on the court. in Switzerland, which she won with Xiamen was upgraded to a Grand Slam to the FIVB team-mate Zhang Xi We added three new Grand Slams to the calendar – in Beach Volleyball World Tour, but it was important we Corrientes (Argentina), Long Beach (USA) and Xiamen had a second stop in Asia to help the growth of beach Publication Management (China) and all three were important strategic locations volleyball in that Confederation. and Editorial Committee for the development of beach volleyball. Fédération Internationale All three can take heart from Stare Jablonki. The de Volleyball It was fantastic to take the tour back to the US and tournament in Poland, which began life as a men-only Château Les Tourelles Long Beach meant we had a stop close to where beach Open in 2004, turned into a hugely popular double- Edouard-Sandoz 2-4, 1006 Lausanne, Switzerland volleyball originally took shape and where many of the gender Grand Slam and this year hosted the highly Tel. 0041-21-3453535 stars on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour took successful FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships. Fax 0041-21-3453545 their first steps in the sport. www.fivb.org The organisers showed that with hard work, learned Press Department Director While beach volleyball will always have a thriving scene lessons and by listening to the athletes they can have Richard Baker stateside, the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour provides a tournament which athletes and spectators alike will the next level up with a wider variety of styles and want to return to again and again. Editorial conditions and from that point of view I was delighted Jeremy Inson to see Casey Patterson make a successful transition in Design and Layout his first season on the FIVB World Tour from domestic amethys.ch tournaments in the US. Translation It was a fantastic tournament in Corrientes and the Libero Language Lab crowds responded by filling centre court on a daily www.liberos.com basis to watch some great action. Reproduction When the tournament was over, all involved were Reproduction of any article able to look back on an excellent tournament that or part of the magazine was enjoyed by everyone. I hope they can continue is authorised, providing that with it as it provides all South American teams with the source is explicitly cited a local tournament to aim for once they have finished FIVB President: Dr. Ary S. Graça F° Contributions Typed articles are accepted in the following languages: # French, English CONTENT / VOLLEYWORLD / 11 / 2013 Email: [email protected] Photographs 2 4 10 12 FIVB Archives BIG PICTURE COVER STORY FEATURE 1 FEATURE 2 VolleyWorld is available Beach Volleyball New faces shake up Brazilian duos ensure China and the wraps up another the established order home delight in Netherlands top to download in English, French, successful year on World Tour Campinas the world in Poland Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian and Chinese at www.fivb.org The views expressed in 14 16 18 20 VolleyWorld are not necessarily FEATURE 3 FEATURE 4 FEATURE 5 SOCIAL MEDIA those of the FIVB or its Officials. Porto puts on show Golden days for Familiar teams add The content of this publication for young pretenders Brazilian and Polish U23 crowns to medal is based on the best information pairs under Croatian collections 24 available at the time the sun CONFEDERATIONS articles were written. 2 BIG PICTURE 3 – Beach Volleyball wraps up another successful year The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour once again met expectations keeping fans entertained and excited around the globe as the tournament took place in 10 different venues, which included regular favourites such as Gstaad and Rome as well as the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in Mazury, Poland. The World Tour was underpinned by four Open tournaments that gave more nations the chance to host a tournament and make 2013 a year to remember. COVER STORY 4 BVB WORLD TOUR 5 – New faces shake up the established order on World Tour With changes to the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour in 2013 as well as new venues for the Grand Slams and the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, VolleyWorld looks back on a year that threw up surprises galore as new teams began to make their mark. Talita Antunes (left) and Taiana Lima took an early grip on the women’s rankings COVER STORY 6 BVB WORLD TOUR One tournament caught the attention after the publication of the They followed their win in Shanghai with gold medals at the 2013 Beach Volleyball World Tour dates – the FIVB Beach Volleyball Grand Slams in The Hague, Rome, Long Beach and Berlin and World Championships in the ever-popular Stare Jablonki in Poland. then a silver medal in Xiamen. With five golds in the first eight However, there were also a further 10 Grand Slams over four FIVB Grand Slams of the season, they were the runaway leaders. In fact confederations to contend with and new venues and conditions to so dominant have they been that they could afford to only add adapt to in Corrientes (Argentina), Long Beach (USA) and Xiamen the silver medal from the Xiamen Grand Slam in the final three (China). Grand Slams and still remain top. Supplementing the Grand Slams and contributing points to the World Brazil’s Salgado sisters Maria-Clara and Carolina enjoyed their Rankings were four Open tournaments. The Fuzhou Open in China best year after Carolina returned to the beach following the marked the start of the FIVB beach volleyball season and after further birth of her first child in 2013. They began the season well with Opens in Anapa (Russia) and Phuket (Thailand) the 2013 season two bronze medal places in Shanghai and Corrientes and then concluded with the Durban Open on the shores of South Africa’s grabbed silver in The Hague; another silver medal followed in Indian Ocean. Players also earned points in continental competitions Long Beach, before eventually they won their first Grand Slam and their domestic tours. gold medal in Moscow. Looking over the field it was hard to make any concrete predictions after Also making a dramatic return was triple US Olympic gold medallist the vast majority of female and male teams were shaken up and mixed Kerri Walsh, albeit without her long-term partner Misty May-Treanor. about. In the end it was some familiar faces in new-look teams that led She first teamed up with April Ross in Gstaad with the long-term the way in 2013. goal of winning a fourth Olympic gold at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. They reached the knockout stages in the Swiss Alps, Despite being a new pairing, Brazilians Talita Antunes and Taiana Lima but then reunited to win the Sao Paolo and Xiamen Grand Slams and were the dominant female pair throughout the season. Even when they send an early warning of what the rest of the teams will face in 2014. were not at their best they still managed to find a way onto the podium and were fitting winners for the top spot in the season rankings. For surprises though the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships were like none before them. While the well-established Chen Xue and At the start of the season Talita and Lima did not hang around and won Zhang Xi of China finally added a global title to their 2008 Olympic the first of their five FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour gold medals at the Games and 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship bronze opening Grand Slam of the year in Shanghai with a win over Austrian medals, few would have expected them to defeat Germany’s Karla sisters Doris and Stefanie Schwaiger. Borger and Britta Büthe in the gold medal match. 7 Latvia’s Janis Smedins and Aleksandrs Samoilovs were another new partner Jacob Gibb meanwhile teamed up with the flamboyant team to find their stride and they were pushed hard by Brazil’s Pedro Casey Patterson to win gold at the Shanghai Grand Slam, silver in Salgado and Bruno Schmidt throughout the season before they Corrientes and a bronze medal in Gstaad. topped the men’s season rankings, with the Brazilians in second place. Elsewhere Italy’s Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo and Spain’s Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira flew the flag for Europe by winning silvers The men’s Tour developed into a straight shoot-out between Smedins/ and bronze. Nicolai and Lupo won silver in Fuzhou and bronze in Samoilovs and Salgado/ Schmidt, with both sides winning five medals Corrientes, Long Beach and Xiamen, while Herrera and Gavira won – two gold, two silver and one bronze. However, the one time they silver in Long Beach and bronze in Berlin and were also crowned met in a final in The Hague, it was the Brazilians who came out on European champions. top. It all came down to the final tournament of the year at the Durban The Salgado sisters Maria-Clara (left) and Carolina had plenty to celebrate, Open and when the Latvians reached the quarterfinals it was enough as did their brother Pedro (right) and his partner Bruno Schmidt to keep them at the top of the season rankings.