Women’s beach volleyball action under the Eiffel Tower at the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad is set to start shortly after the men’s, at 18:00 local time on Saturday, with a high-profile meeting between the Chinese pairing of Xia Xinyi and Beijing 2008 Olympic bronze medallist Xue Chen, the reigning Asian champions, and Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallists Taliqua Clancy & Mariafe Artacho Del Solar of Australia, setting the tone for an exciting race to the Paris 2024 women’s Olympic podium.

For the first stage of the tournament, the 24 participating women’s teams are split into six round-robin pools of four. 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.

Bracket leaders Eduarda Santos Lisboa (Duda) & Ana Patricia Ramos (pictured in the man photo) of Brazil will, of course, headline Pool A. The 2014 Youth Olympic champions, 2022 world champions and current number one team in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Ranking will start their second Olympic appearance for each of them individually, but their first as a team, in the company of Africa’s continental champions Marwa Abdelhady & Doaa Elghobashy of Egypt, Spain’s Liliana Fernаndez & Paula Soria and Italy’s Marta Menegatti & Valentina Gottardi. Paris 2024 will be the fourth Olympics for Liliana and for Menegatti, and the second for Elghobashy. The Pool A matches will start on Sunday.

In addition to the clash between China and Australia, Pool B’s programme will feature one more match later on the first competition day in Paris. The world’s number two team, Taryn Kloth & Kristen Nuss of the United States, will make their Olympic debut against Canada’s Heather Bansley & Sophie Bukovec. The most experienced Olympians in this pool are Xue, for whom it will be the fourth Games, Mariafe, Clancy and Bansley, who will be third-time participants, and Xia, who competed once before, at Tokyo 2020.

Another American team, reigning world champions Sara Hughes & Kelly Cheng, highlight the Pool C composition. Second-time Olympian Cheng and Olympic rookie Hughes well take to the court on Sunday for their first game against Czechia’s Barbora Hermannova & Marie-Sara Stochlova. Hermannova is a third-time Olympian, although she did not get to play in any matches at her second Games in Tokyo because of a positive coronavirus test. In the same pool, French pair Aline Chamereau & Clemence Vieira will draw the home fans’ attention. They will make their Olympic debut against another team new to the Games, Germany’s Cinja Tillmann & Svenja Muller.

Pool D will also offer some great action from second-time Olympians Tina Graudina & Anastasija Samoilova of Latvia, who finished fourth at their previous participation in Tokyo. In their opening match on Monday, the two-time European champions will take on rising Swiss stars Esmee Bobner & Zoe Verge-Depre, who managed to take one of their country’s two Olympic vacancies from the older Verge-Depre sister Anouk and her partner Joana Mader, the team that beat the Latvians for the bronze in Tokyo. Earlier that day, the formidable Canadian pairing of former world champion Melissa Humana-Paredes with former World Championship silver medallist Brandie Wilkerson, both second-time Olympians as well, will be challenged by rising Paraguayan stars Giuliana Poletti & Michelle Valiente.

The teams to watch in Pool E are Brazil’s Barbara Seixas & Carol Solberg and Netherlands’ Katja Stam & Raisa Schoon. Both duos are former leaders of the World Ranking. Both Barbara and Carol are really experienced in the world of beach volleyball, but surprisingly, Barbara has only played at one Olympics before, Rio 2016, where she took silver, while Carol is a newcomer to the Games. For the much younger Dutch athletes, Paris 2024 will be the second Olympic experience. On Sunday’s Pool E opening day, the Brazilian duo will start against Japan’s Akiko Hasegawa & Miki Ishii. After representing the host nation at Tokyo 2020, Ishii will enjoy her second Olympic experience in Paris. The Dutch pair will then take on Olympic debutants Monika Paulikiene & Aine Raupelyte of Lithuania.

Pool F will start on Sunday with a remake of last year’s European Championship final, in which Switzerland’s Nina Brunner & Tanja Huberli beat Spain’s Daniela Alvarez & Tania Moreno to claim their second continental title. While Brunner & Huberli competed in Tokyo three years ago, their encounter with Alvarez & Moreno will mark the 22-year-old Spaniards’ Olympic debut. The bronze medallists of that event, the German team of Louisa Lippmann & Laura Ludwig, are also in this pool. It will be a dream come true for the former indoor star to compete in the Olympic sand for the first time, while her partner, a former Olympic and world champion, is enjoying her fifth consecutive Olympic Games. The Germans will launch their Paris 2024 campaign with a game against first-time Olympians and home favourites Lezana Placette & Alexia Richard.

The pool stage of the tournament will be completed on August 3. Later that day, the single-elimination matches will start, eventually leading to the medal matches on August 10.

Olympic Games Paris 2024 Beach Volleyball: full schedule

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