Tanja Huberli & Nina Brunner claimed the bronze medals in the women’s Olympic beach volleyball tournament on Friday evening, after an emphatic straight-set win over Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallists Mariafe Artacho Del Solar & Taliqua Clancy of Australia. This is Switzerland’s second consecutive Olympic bronze in women’s beach volleyball, following Joana Heidrich (now Mader) & Anouk Verge-Depre’s third place in Tokyo three years ago. It is also Europe’s only third ever women’s Olympic podium in the sport.

Seventh-seeded Huberli & Brunner completely outplayed 14^th-seeded Mariafe & Clancy in the Paris 2024 third place match to register a convincing 2-0 (21-17, 21-15) victory, while the Australian pair failed to show their usual high level. Although the Swiss made slightly more unforced errors than the Aussies, they outplayed them in all other point-scoring elements. Huberli led the way with 19 points, including four kill blocks and one ace. Brunner added 16 points, including three aces and the two set winners. Clancy was her team’s most prolific player with two aces and 15 kills in attack.

The first set went level through 8-7 Australia’s way, when Huberli & Brunner hammered out a five-point streak to break away with a four-point lead and never looked back. They paced on to close the set at 21-17 on a successful swing by Brunner. Another five in row gave the European champions an 8-3 lead in the second set and as if that caused Mariafe & Clancy to give up, yielding total control of the court to the opponents. Determined to make it to the Olympic podium, Huberli & Brunner cruised on to a 21-15, with Brunner once again authoring the winning point in attack.

“It's unreal. I've already said it before, I think it's more than I've ever dreamed of when I started playing,” Huberli told the FIVB after the game. “You know, I've never had the dream of becoming an Olympic medallist, because I thought that this was not going to happen, that I would not be able to do this. It's so unreal!

“The most important thing was not to lose the head, when it was 19-12, when you were so close to the medal. I knew now we had to keep pushing, because there's a lot of games when the teams come back, because then they know that they don't have anything to lose. And we were shortly before winning, but I think we stayed really calm in that moment and we just played our game.”

“I think we've never really dreamed of this because it seemed so far away,” Brunner added. “But the Olympic medal is the biggest thing you can win in your sport. And we have this now. We will forever cherish this in our hearts. And with all the people we had here, it's just amazing!”

Next is the gold medal match, with Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes & Brandie Wilkerson taking on Brazil’s Ana Patricia Ramos & Eduarda Santos Lisboa (Duda) at the Eiffel Tower Stadium in Paris at 22:30 local time (20:30 UTC).

Olympic Games Paris 2024 Beach Volleyball: schedule and results

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Paris 2024 Olympic Beach Volleyball
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