The Paris 2024 Olympic champions in beach volleyball, David Ahman & Jonatan Hellvig of Sweden and Ana Patricia Ramos & Eduarda Santos Lisboa (Duda) of Brazil, received a well-deserved heroes’ welcome as they returned to their home countries after winning the gold medals in the French capital. Exhausted by both the long Olympic campaign and the festivities after the awarding ceremony at the Eiffel Tower Stadium, the Swedish jump-setters even decided to opt out of defending their title at this week’s CEV European Championship in the Netherlands.

Even before leaving Paris for Sweden, 22-year-old Ahman & Hellvig had quite a busy post-tournament schedule. Crowned as Olympic champions late on Saturday evening, they had the awarding ceremony, then the mixed zone interviews, a press conference and doping control, so they did not start the real party before leaving the venue at 03:30 on Sunday morning.

They skipped the eight o’clock TV interview scheduled at the Max studio in an attempt to catch up with some sleep, but they did appear at the Sweden Arena Hospitality House in Paris later on Sunday, where they were celebrated along with Swedish Olympic bronze medallists in sailing Lovisa Karlsson and Anton Dahlberg.

Finally on Swedish soil on Monday, Ahman & Hellvig received their heroes’ homecoming celebration at the Mall of Scandinavia near Stockholm, where they were greeted by numerous fans along with another Swedish Olympic hero, pole vault gold medallist and world record holder Armand Duplantis.

“Fantastic!” Hellvig exclaimed. “It’s great that there were so many people here to welcome us. It is quite moving that there are so many, who have followed us here at home in Sweden.”

It turned out that the two Swedish athletes both had some injury problems on the way to the Olympic title and they are also one of the reasons they withdrew from EuroBeachVolley,

“We have worked hard for this and hardly had any time off in recent years, a maximum of two weeks off from training. Now we will take some time off here and try to recover,” said Ahman. “I've had a bit of a problem with my shoulder and Jonatan has a small problem with his thumb, so it felt difficult to come back and play a European Championship right after the Olympics.”

Ana Patricia & Duda have also been quite busy in between the multiple media duties after conquering the Olympic gold on Friday evening.

While still in Paris, they also celebrated their success at the Casa Brasil, Brazil’s hospitality house at the Games. On Saturday, the new Olympic champions were VIP guests at the South Paris Arena, where they cheered on their compatriots of the women’s national volleyball team as they beat Türkiye for the bronze.

The Brazilian stars also climbed the Eiffel Tower to take a bird’s eye look down at the fantastic stadium where they earned their historic victory.

With a special permission from the International Olympic Committee, Ana Patricia & Duda were chosen as Brazil’s flag bearers at Sunday’s closing ceremony and that was the first time in history two women carried the Brazilian flag at the closing Olympic event.

Of course, there was a special welcome for the Olympic heroines back at home in Sao Paulo, where they could feel the love and appreciation of the Brazilian people for bringing home the Olympic gold in women’s beach volleyball for the first time in 28 years.

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