Young Mexicans proud of first Olympic appearance

A casual beach volleyball fan following the sport a little closer during the Tokyo Olympics could have been surprised by reigning world champions Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovskiy's opening match.

One of the strongest teams in the world and medal contenders in Tokyo, the Europeans came as close as it gets to losing first match in pool B, when they needed all three sets and an 18-16 score in the tie-breaker to prevail over a pair of unexperienced and relatively unknown Mexicans named Jose Rubio and Josue Gaxiola.

Silver medallists at the 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championships, the 24-year-old Rubio and the 23-year-old Gaxiola have played together in just six World Tour events, four of which were in 2021. But it didn’t take them long to find their way to the elite of the sport and qualify to represent Mexico in Tokyo.

“We’re super excited to be here,” Rubio commented. “It’s a fantastic opportunity and a great honour to get to represent our country at such a big and important event. It’s really important for our country to be represented at the Olympics and it was great that we got to qualify.”

Rubio and Gaxiola’s qualification for Tokyo marked the first time Mexico has sent a men’s beach volleyball team to two consecutive Olympic editions. The two joined veterans Lombardo Ontiveros and Juan Virgen, who have long been the faces of their country in international beach volleyball, to prevail in the NORCECA Continental Cup Finals at the end of June and secure a spot in Tokyo.

Only one of the teams, however, could make the trip to Japan and a match between the two decided Gaxiola and Rubio would be the ones to do so.

“It was a great match between us and them to determine who would come to Tokyo,” Rubio said. “It was great we ended up winning it, but the best part of it is that now Mexico has not one, but two teams in conditions to compete internationally among the best. We hope it only gets better from now on.”

The young Mexicans are facing a challenging situation in Tokyo as their head coach Salvador Gonzalez, who had been in the last four editions of the Olympics with the country’s men’s and women’s teams, is ab

Despite the absence of Gonzalez, the young Mexicans are confident they can have a good performance in their first Olympics and their strong performance in the opening match against Stoyanovskiy and Krasilnikov certainly reinforced that idea in their minds.

“Only one team could win and it happened to be them,” Rubio analysed. “But we left the court happy with the level of play we had against such a strong team. It gives us the energy and the confidence to keep fighting even harder in the other matches.”

Quick links:
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Schedule and results
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Beach volleyball
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Youtube