After winning the Rio de Janeiro Elite16 on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour on Sunday, Brazil’s Carol Solberg & Barbara Seixas rightfully returned to the number one spot in the women’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Ranking. All other Rio medallists in both the women’s and the men’s tournaments reached their teams’ highest positions ever in the World Rankings, while former men’s number one Anders Mol & Christian Sorum of Norway, who finished fourth last week, now made their way back up to number two.

FIVB Beach Volleyball World Ranking – Women

Just a week after giving the top spot in the World Ranking to Latvia’s Tina Graudina & Anastasija Samoilova and dropping to third place, Carol & Barbara regained their position in an emphatic manner. Reaching the Rio quarterfinals would have been enough to catch up with the Latvians, but they went all the way to the top of the podium to open up a 440-point gap. Carol & Barbara netted 740 of the 1,200 points that came with their first place and improved to a 7,220 total.

While no other shifts occurred in the top 10, Rio silver medallists Terese Cannon & Megan Kraft of USA climbed from number 23 to number 14, bronze medallists Thamela Coradello & Victoria Lopes of Brazil rose from number 40 to number 19, and fourth-placed Sandra Ittlinger & Kim Van de Velde of Germany, for whom it was only the fourth Beach Pro Tour event together, leapt from number 103 to number 53.

FIVB Beach Volleyball World Ranking – Men

The men’s winners in Rio, England’s Joaquin Bello & Javier Bello jumped nine spots up to number 17, the highest they have ever been in the men’s World Ranking. Rio runners-up Nicolas Capogrosso & Tomas Capogrosso of Argentina gained three positions, and bronze medallists Martins Plavins & Kristians Fokerots of Latvia, who have only five tournaments that count behind them, ascended 10 positions, also to their teams’ highest ranks in history, number 13 and number 35, respectively.

Rio semifinalists Mol & Sorum, Tokyo 2020 Olympic champions and Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medallists, net-gained all 900 points that came with their fourth place and climbed from number six to number two on a new total of 7,400 points from seven tournaments played. There is still a gap of 1,460 points to the number one team, David Ahman & Jonatan Hellvig of Sweden, who finished among the four fifth-placed teams in Rio. Another fifth-placed team, Cherif Younousse & Ahmed Tijan of Qatar, moved up from number 10 to number 9, surpassing Cuba’s Noslen Diaz & Jorge Alayo, and that was the only other change within the top 10 in the men’s World Ranking.

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