Opponents in international beach volleyball for the last seven years and rivals in the race to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics, Swiss sisters Anouk and Zoé Vergé-Dépré will be on the same side of the net going forward as the two announced a new partnership in the country.

Their union happens after the 31-year-old Anouk decided to end her eight-year partnership with Joana Mäder, with who she won bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, as well as gold at the 2020 European Championship and nine international medals, and the 26-year-old Zoé was looking for other options after the retirement of her Olympic partner Esmée Böbner.

The Vergé-Dépré sisters featured in one of the most exciting stories of international beach volleyball in the last two years as they fought neck and neck for the right to represent Switzerland at the Paris Olympics. In the end, Zoé and Böbner accumulated the most points on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour and made the trip to the French capital, where they finished fifth.

Now, the goal for the sisters is to get to experience the Olympics together, as partners, in Los Angeles 2028.

“This has been an option for a while, but it was only in the last few weeks that the idea became concrete,” Anouk said about the new team. “This year as direct competitors has brought us even closer together and strengthened our belief that we can work as a team without endangering our sisterly relationship.”

The two had a single experience as partners in the past, having joined forces at the 2018 European Championship, when Mäder was unavailable due to an injury and Anouk invited her younger sister to play – they finished ninth on the occasion.

Anouk set to move back to blocking

As both of them spent the last several years of their careers as defenders, Anouk will move back to her original blocking position in the new formation.

“If not now, then when?” Zoé reacted. “I'm delighted that we can fulfill this dream and be passionate about the same goals in the future.”

The Vergé-Dépré sisters are expected to start training together in November, when they will begin their preparations for the 2025 Beach Pro Tour season.

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