Reigning Olympic beach volleyball champion Christian Sorum was honoured to be one of Norway’s two flag bearers at Friday’s Paris 2024 Olympic Games opening ceremony. The formidable defender will share the prestigious duty with female handball player Katrine Lunde, a two-time Olympic gold medallist in 2008 and 2012. The opening ceremony to be held in the heart of the city along its main artery, the Seine river, is set to take place on Friday, July 26, starting at 19:30 local time (17:30 UTC). Sorum is the fifth member of the volleyball family selected as a flag bearer, together with Latvian beach volleyballer Tina Graudina and volleyballers Maja Ognjenovic of Serbia, Triza Atuka of Kenya and Luciano De Cecco of Argentina.

“I have followed the opening ceremonies at the Olympics since I was a child, so this is really cool!” Sorum commented. “Being the flag bearer at my second Olympics is an honour for me that I will accept on behalf of both my partner Anders and myself.”

Topping the Tokyo 2020 Olympic podium was just the highest of many peaks in 28-year-old Christian Sorum and his 27-year-old teammate Anders Mol’s journey as a beach volleyball pair. In 2022, the Beachvolley Vikings triumphed as world champions. They also earned four European Championship titles in a row from 2018 to 2021, in addition to numerous trophies and medals on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour and the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. For many weeks and months, Sorum & Mol were the number one team in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Ranking and are currently ranked number two.

“Katrine and Christian are two great representatives of Norwegian top sports. They stand for good values and strong performance culture in an admirable way,” said sports manager Tore Ovrebo of the Norwegian Olympic Committee.

Two days after the opening ceremony, Mol & Sorum will open their second Olympic campaign with a Pool B game against Chile’s Marco Grimalt & Esteban Grimalt, starting at 21:00 local time (19:00 UTC). On July 31, at 22:00 (20:00), the Norwegians will take on Italy’s Adrian Carambula & Alex Ranghieri, and on August 2, at 20:00 (18:00), they will finish the pool stage with a match against Steven van de Velde & Matthew Immers of the Netherlands.

The 24 participating teams in each gender are split into six single round-robin pools of four for the first competition stage. The six pool winners, the six pool runners-up and the two best ranked third-placed teams will qualify directly to the eighthfinals. The remaining four third-placed teams will move on to a sixteenthfinal round, the so called “lucky loser” playoffs. From then on, it will be single-elimination playoffs that also go through the quarterfinals and the semifinals, and eventually lead to the medal matches at the event’s climax. The beach volleyball battles for Olympic honours will last from July 27 to August 10.

Olympic Games Paris 2024 Beach Volleyball: full schedule

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