Before starting their participation in the Sochi 4-star event on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, Margareta Kozuch and Laura Ludwig are placed above the cut-off line for Tokyo 2020 qualification, but not far enough above it to have safely secured their Olympic ticket yet. For Maggie Kozuch, a relatively recent indoor-to-beach convert, however, her passion for the sport is independent on whether or not they make it to the Japanese capital this summer.
“Of course, the first goal is to be 100% qualified, but we also want to do well at the Olympics, because we have the potential to do so. So it’s not only about motivation for the Olympic Games, but also about motivation to develop our potential as a team,” the German star told Volleyball World in Sochi.
“It would be wonderful to be able to say that we have qualified after this tournament, but we are more focused on what we try to develop in our game, and if we can put into the game what we are doing in training, this will already be a goal that we have achieved. The most important thing for us is to find the Kozuch/Ludwig team game spirit,” Kozuch added.
Maggie Kozuch was an indoor player with a very successful professional career at both national team and club level before she decided to switch to beach volleyball in 2017. In 2019, she teamed up with Laura Ludwig, a three-time Olympian, reigning champion from Rio 2016, and at the time still a reigning 2017 world champion.
So while one of the partners is eager to defend her title at the Games this summer, the other won is chasing her dream to play at her first Olympics. Kozuch admits these are two different kinds of motivation, but declines to venture an opinion as to which of the two teammates is more motivated on the road to Tokyo.
“You cannot compare. It’s very difficult to say whether it’s less or more. Yes, each of us is in a different situation, but for me it’s about finding our game and following the project we committed to more than making it dependent only on being at the Olympics individually,” she said. “At least for me, there are more important things that are guiding me. This is the reason why I am still doing sports and playing beach volleyball under the circumstances, which are challenging for everybody. The passion does not depend on the tournaments; it’s something that is there anyway...”
When you play next to an accomplished player of Laura Ludwig’s stature, the high expectations are bound to be there, but Kozuch says she and Ludwig are following a different path of their own as a different team placed in different circumstances.
“I think what Laura and Kira (Walkenhorst) did was a wonderful thing, but now it’s a whole different project, with different dynamics and different lifestyles. I am new on the sand after being a professional indoor player and that’s one difference. Another is related to Laura having a family and a baby... So you can never compare the two projects,” the 34-year-old blocker said. “In the end, when you are out there, everybody wants to win and everybody has to find their own way to be good on the court. This is very special and you cannot really say it has to be like this, because you already did it once. Of course, when I am next to a person who has already won everything, it automatically brings certain expectations that can sometimes put me under pressure. But this is probably natural, because we, athletes, are not really patient, in general.”
Kozuch and Ludwig already revealed their team potential when they won gold at the 2019 World Tour Finals in Rome, their only international medal as a pair so far. The fact that with just two qualifying tournaments to go, this week in Sochi and next week in Ostrava, the German pair has not secured their spot at the Tokyo Games yet does not take away from Maggie’s optimistic outlook.
“What is good is that everything is in our hands. I think even though it’s on the edge, we are in a good position and it’s all about how we compete in these last two tournaments. It is good, because it really depends on us and not so much on the results of other players. So we are focusing on our game, on what we want to do and on what kind of beach volleyball we want to play. If we can achieve this, then we can do a good job at this tournament and the next.”
Seventh-seeded Kozuch and Ludwig are just about to start their participation on the Russian sand with their first main draw game against Canada’s Megan McNamara and Nicole McNamara. Also in Pool G are Latvia’s Anastasija Kravcenoka and Tina Graudina and Japan's Miki Ishii and Megumi Murakami.
Quick links:
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour - Sochi
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
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