Tanja Huberli and Nina Betschart are enjoying their first Olympics, without too much emotion, without too much pressure and without too many expectations even after the victorious start they made on Saturday. The Swiss pair, semifinalists of the last FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship, are widely considered among the likely medallists at Tokyo 2020, but they prefer to stay away from thinking about the podium and take it one game at a time on the Olympic sand.
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Beach Volleyball
Huberli & Betschart: Sometimes you also need luck
The Swiss team are focused on giving their best with what is in their control
Published 05:42, 25 Jul 2021
They did not even want to make a big deal out of winning their first match at Shiokaze Park against none other than the defending Olympic champion Laura Ludwig and her partner Margareta Kozuch.
“It’s always special to play against Laura. She is still a very good player, we all admire her for everything she has achieved and it’s special if you win a game against her. Maggie also played a good game. They are a strong team,” Nina Betschart told Volleyball World. “But they have some ups and downs, just like we do. Laura became an Olympic champion five years ago with another partner. I think now is something different, but she was maybe the most balanced player in our match. You could feel that she has experience.”
Tanja Huberli enters the Olympic court
It was really a hard-fought battle. Each of the three sets was pushed to overtime. The Swiss managed to come back from a set down to celebrate with the victory, but Tanja Huberli did not think they put in their best performance. Right after the end of that match, she was already looking forward to their next game, eager to improve.
“We are focused on ourselves, on our game, and we just want to put everything we have into every match and try to play our best, which was obviously not the case in our first game,” the 28-year-old athlete said. “We cannot wait until Wednesday when we play again and we will for sure try to do better. We take game after game. We don’t have expectations about a certain ranking or how far we want to go.”
“We thought a lot about this first game at our first Olympics. We were obviously nervous,” 25-year-old Betschart added. “It feels good that this first game is behind us. We even won it and now we can continue.”
To get ready for their first Olympic appearance, Tanja and Nina teamed up well before the end of the previous Olympic cycle. They appeared on the World Tour together at the beginning of the 2016 season and made headlines soon after, claiming their first medal, a bronze from the top-level Klagenfurt Major event.
On the way to finishing seventh as the highest-placed European team in the Olympic ranking and qualifying for Tokyo 2020, they picked up a 2018 European Championship silver and a gold, a silver and another three bronze medals on the World Tour. Less than two months ago, Huberli and Betschart reached the final of the Sochi 4-star event, which made a big impact on their chances of qualifying for the Games.
Their successful path towards Tokyo and their stable performances on the sand have positioned the Swiss duo among the medal hopefuls, but they don’t take that as a source of extra pressure.
“No, we don’t feel pressure. We don’t talk about this. I know some media may talk about it, or the fans, but we don’t focus on the medals. We are really trying to focus on our game,” Huberli said. “I don’t think it will help us if we keep thinking, ‘oh, this could be the first medal...’ Everything is how it is and we will take it how it is. We will play against whoever our opponents are and in the end we will see how far we can go. For sure, we will try to go as far as we can and give our best with everything we can control, but sometimes you also need luck to win a medal.”
Nina Betschart in action
The Swiss pair are so focused on their game that they don’t even mind all the strict anti-coronavirus restrictions in place at their first Olympic participation.
“We’ve never been to a ‘normal’ Olympics, but I think this one is obviously different. In the Village, we can walk around freely, so it’s really nice that we can go out a little bit and are not stuck in our hotel rooms all day,” Betschart said. “Yes, with the masks and all the tests, it’s special, but our whole season has been like that and we are used to it. I think the organisers here are doing a great job. The people are really helpful and try to give us a good time. We are happy to be here!”
