Lezana Placette & Alexia Richard were the first French pair to delight the home crowd at the Eiffel Tower Stadium with a beach volleyball win at the Paris 2024 Olympics. In a women’s Pool F game on Monday evening, they managed to defeat Germany’s Laura Ludwig & Louisa Lippmann in straight sets.

Inspired by the enthusiastic support of thousands on the stands, the sixth-seeded French team produced a 2-0 (21-14, 22-20) victory over the 19^th-seeded pairing of former world and Olympic champion Ludwig and indoor-star-to-beach convert Lippmann. Placette & Richard capitalized on their better spiking and the abundant opponent errors to achieve the historic win. Richard and Ludwig were the best scorers of the match with 14 points each.

In the other Pool F game on Monday, seventh-seeded Tanja Huberli & Nina Brunner of Switzerland mastered a 2-0 (21-12, 21-19) shutout of 18^th-seeded Daniela Alvarez & Tania Moreno of Spain, with Brunner leading the way with 18 points.

The other Swiss pair at the Olympics, Esmee Bobner & Zoe Verge-Depre, achieved an easier-than-expected victory over the team that finished fourth at the Tokyo Olympics, Tina Graudina & Anastasija Samoilova. The 16^th-seeded Swiss duo produced a 2-0 (21-15, 21-14) shutout of the ninth-seeded Latvians.

“It was really nice to play. I think in the end it’s always nice if you can just do what you expected to do,” Esmee, who put away a match-high 19 points, told the FIVB. “We managed to do it today, and with the crowd, at this venue, and in our first Olympic game, it was just incredible! In the beginning of the sets we always had some strong points that pushed them out of the game a little bit and that was really the key. We were then able to keep it up and move forward point by point.”

Before beating the fourth-placed team from Tokyo 2020, Esmee & Zoe also knocked out Tokyo bronze medallists Anouk Verge-Depre & Joana Mader in the domestic Swiss race for Paris 2024 tickets, unveiling their own medal potential.

“We always see the medal potential in ourselves, but our focus here is really to play point by point, game by game, because I think that’s when we play best – when we are just in the moment and don’t think too far. But I know that if we are able to do this, then we can go really far,” Zoe commented.

Zoe, the younger of the two Verge-Depre sisters, also shared her thoughts about the sibling rivalry situation, in which she and Anouk were forced to compete with each other for a single available Olympic vacancy.

“It was a really new situation. It was the first time for both of us, and maybe not only for us – I don’t know if there ever was a situation like this,” she said. “We had to figure out how to handle it along the way, but the communication went really well. We did not talk too much during the tournaments, but we caught up after the tournaments. It was clear that it was just a difficult situation, but as soon as the decision was made, we would find our way back to each other and whoever took the spot would get the support of the other one and of the entire family, obviously.

“I think Anouk is really proud of me and she is supporting me here and that’s a really good feeling. Our parents had it easy, because they knew that somebody was going to go to the Olympics and they could book their tickets in advance. But it had to be difficult for them too, because they had to be happy for one and at the same time be there to support and cheer up the other one, and I think the games that we had against each other were tough to watch for the family, and tough for us as well. I am happy that it’s over and I hope we never have this situation again.”

Fourth-seeded Melissa Humana-Paredes & Brandie Wilkerson of Canada did not allow any surprises in Monday’s other Pool D match against rising Paraguayan stars Giuliana Poletti & Michelle Valiente, seeded 21^st, and hammered out a 2-0 (21-16, 21-12) shutout.

The second-leg matches in Pool B were also played on Monday. Second-seeded Kristen Nuss & Taryn Kloth of the United States achieved their second win in Paris, a 2-0 (21-16, 21-16) sweep of their encounter with Tokyo 2020 silver medallists Mariafe Artacho Del Solar & Taliqua Clancy of Australia, seeded 14^th. China’s Xue Chen & Xia Xinyi, seeded 11^th, registered their first victory of the tournament, a 2-0 (21-15, 21-19) shutout of 23^rd-seeded Canadians Heather Bansley & Sophie Bukovec, who are yet to score their first win in Paris.

Olympic Games Paris 2024 Beach Volleyball: schedule and results

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