Year in Review: men’s Beach Pro Tour 2024 – the Nordic domination

Beach volleyball might be considered a summer sport for the warm climates by many, but the unlikely domination of teams from the cold north on the men’s Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour continued in 2024. The rivalry between the arguably two best teams in the world, Sweden’s David Ahman & Jonatan Hellvig and Norway’s Anders Mol & Christian Sorum, during the year led them to new heights as they collected four gold medals each on the Tour. Interestingly, the only other men’s team that managed to top more than two Beach Pro Tour podiums in 2024 was also from the north – Swedish teenagers Jacob Holting Nilsson & Elmer Andersson.

The 2024 Beach Pro Tour offered the most extensive annual beach volleyball calendar of world-level events ever. As many as 54 stops were held with 49 of them including men’s tournaments – 30 Futures, eight Challenge, 10 Elite16 and one Finals events. Such a large number of events have never been held within one calendar year in the past, either on the Beach Pro Tour, or on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.

Already established as the world’s best team thanks to the many years of domination, Tokyo 2020 Olympic champions Anders Mol & Christian Sorum had to deal with some medical issues during the first half of the year. They were clearly not in the best shape they had ever been in, so that was time for their young rivals from neighbouring Sweden to push and take over. In fact, David Ahman & Jonatan Hellvig only continued something they had already started back in August 2023.

By winning the 2023 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship in Vienna, the Swedish jump-setters took off on an incredible run of reaching the gold medal matches at 11 consecutive major international competitions they took part in. That amazing series also took them through the 2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship final, the 2023 Beach Pro Tour Finals title and the top of the Paris 2024 Olympic podium, and brought them six Elite16 golds, including four in a row in 2024.

During that run, the only Beach Pro Tour final Ahman & Hellvig lost was the one of the year’s opening Elite16 event in the Qatari capital Doha in early March. In one of the very few occasions in 2024 when and Elite16 gold went to a team other than the Swedes and the Norwegians, Netherlands’ Stefan Boermans & Yorick de Groot mastered an emphatic 2-0 (21-11, 21-10) sweep of the Doha final against Ahman & Hellvig. Mol & Sorum settled for bronze.

In April’s Elite16 in Tepic, Mexico, the Swedish duo triumphed after a 2-1 (21-17, 19-21, 15-10) victory over Brazil’s George Wanderley & Andre Stein in the final, while trending Cubans Noslen Diaz & Jorge Alayo made it to their first-ever Elite16 podium. Right after this tournament, Ahman & Hellvig took over the top of the FIVB World Ranking from Mol & Sorum for the first time and have reigned as the world’s number one team ever since (with a small exception in October, when Boermans & De Groot took the lead for a week).

Neither the Swedes, nor the Norwegians took part in the Brasilia Elite16 in early May. The home pairing of Evandro Oliveira & Arthur Mariano took the gold upon achieving a 2-1 (17-21, 23-21, 15-9) comeback victory over Steven van de Velde & Matthew Immers of the Netherlands in the final. Another Brazilian pair, George & Andre, completed the podium.

Ahman & Hellvig were back on Tour for the Espinho Elite16 in late May in Portugal. They mastered a convincing 2-0 (21-16, 21-13) shutout of Germany’s Nils Ehlers & Clemens Wickler in the gold medal showdown, while George & Andre picked up another bronze.

The Swedes added another gold to their collection at the Ostrava Elite16 in early June in Czechia. This time, they beat Boermans & De Groot in the final, celebrating a 2-0 (21-19, 21-18) victory. After an absence of about three months since Doha, Mol & Sorum were finally back on Tour, but had to settle for fourth place, beaten by USA’s Miles Partain & Andrew Benesh in the bronze medal game.

The next Elite16 was held in Gstaad, Switzerland in early July. Ahman & Hellvig picked up their fourth consecutive gold after a 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) shutout of George & Andre in the final. This time, Mol & Sorum made it to the podium with bronze.

The following week, the Swedish pair skipped the last Elite16 event before the Paris 2024 Olympics. It was held in the Austrian capital Vienna. Gradually picking up their speed, Mol & Sorum topped the podium. In the gold medal showdown, they produced a 2-0 (25-23, 21-12) win over Poland’s Michal Bryl & Bartosz Losiak. The bronze went to Chile’s Marco Grimalt & Esteban Grimalt.

The first Elite16 event after the Olympics was held in Hamburg, Germany in late August. The newly crowned Olympic champions Ahman & Hellvig skipped that one as well, while Mol & Sorum triumphed with the trophy. In the final, the Beachvolley Vikings beat Spanish veterans Pablo Herrera & Adrian Gavira by 2-0 (21-15, 21-11). Boermans & De Groot snatched the bronze.

The Joao Pessoa Elite16 in Brazil during the second half of October was the first major international tournament in almost a year and a half, in which Ahman & Hellvig participated, but did not reach the final. They were stopped in the semifinals by Mol & Sorum. It was, in fact, only the second time the two teams met head to head this year, after their encounter in the Ostrava semifinals in June. The Norwegians got back at the Swedes and went on to collect their third Elite16 gold in a row. In the final, they battled it out for a nail-biting 2-1 (25-27, 21-17, 19-17) victory over Qatar’s Cherif Younousse & Ahmed Tijan. That game was considered as one of the most spectacular matches in the history of the sport by beach volleyball commentators.

Rio de Janeiro in Brazil hosted the last Elite16 event for 2024 in early November. That was the first major international tournament in almost a year and a half, in which Ahman & Hellvig participated, but did not even make the podium, finishing fifth. Mol & Sorum did not make the podium either and finished fourth. The trophy unexpectedly went to England’s Joaquin Bello & Javier Bello and it was their first-ever Beach Pro Tour gold at any level. In a dramatic final, they came back from a set down to celebrate a 2-1 (22-24, 30-28, 15-13) victory over Argentina’s Nicolas Capogrosso & Tomas Capogrosso. Latvia’s Martins Plavins & Kristians Fokerots beat Mol & Sorum for the bronze.

Mol & Sorum and Ahman & Hellvig had the opportunity to catch up with each other again at the Doha Finals in early December. In the Qatari capital, they met not once, but twice. The Swedes celebrated a 2-1 (15-21, 21-17, 15-8) comeback victory in pool play, but when they met again the big final of the Finals, it was the Norwegians that triumphed with a 2-0 (21-18, 22-20) victory, this way taking revenge not only for the loss in pool play, but also for the loss in the 2023 Doha Finals gold medal match. Qatari hosts Cherif & Ahmed took the bronze after a 2-1 (18-21, 21-15, 17-15) comeback against Boermans & De Groot in the third place match.

Meanwhile, Ahman & Hellvig’s practice buddies, Jacob Holting Nilsson & Elmer Andersson, 19 and 18 years old, respectively, trained by the same coach, Rasmus Jonsson, won the last two Challenge tournaments of the year and were the youngest ever to win a tournament of that level. Earlier in 2024, the Swedish teens had won July’s Rakvere Futures in Estonia. At November’s Chennai Challenge in India, they not only qualified for their first main draw at the Challenge level, but also powered on all the way to the top of the podium. Furthermore, the following week they did it again at the Nuvali Challenge in the Philippines and became the only men’s duo, other than Ahman & Helvig and Mol & Sorum, to collect three gold medals on the 2024 Beach Pro Tour.

The remaining six Challenge tournaments in 2024 were won by: Evandro & Arthur in Recife, Brazil, George & Andre in Saquarema, Brazil, USA’s Trevor Crabb & Theodore Brunner in Guadalajara, Mexico, Grimalt & Grimalt in Xiamen, China, Czechia’s Ondrej Perusic & David Schweiner in Stare Jablonki, Poland and USA’s Cody Caldwell & Evan Cory in Haikou, China.

Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour 2024: all results

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