Their pioneering creativity is what helped Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins stay top of the beach volleyball world for over eight years. Proud inventors of the jump set, the Latvian stars turned two-touch action into a winning strategy on the sand and leave behind a decade of international success as they begin the next with a refreshing dose of optimism.
Aleksandrs Samoilovs started participating in youth world and continental championships in 2003 at the age of 18, and a year later he topped the podium at the CEV U20 European Championship in Koper alongside Martins Plavins. In 2005, the pair were victorious again at the U23 European Championship in Myslowice before celebrating as gold medallists at the FIVB U21 Beach Volleyball World Championship in Rio de Janeiro.
Samoilovs and Plavins had a fantastic Olympic debut at Beijing 2008, shutting out heavy favourites and champions-to-be Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers of USA in their opening game and eventually finishing ninth. The pair had never managed to reach the podium at an FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event, but the Games in Beijing were their last tournament as a team.
Samoilovs’ first World Tour medal was a Kristiansand silver in 2009, but also the only one he earned alongside his new partner Ruslans Sorokins, with whom he claimed another Olympic ninth-place finish at London 2012.
Despite being a couple of years younger than Samoilovs, Janis Smedins also appeared on the international beach volleyball scene in 2003, winning silver at his first continental event, the U18 European Championship in Brno, together with older brother Toms Smedins. They did better two years later, earning the U20 European title in Tel Aviv. In between, Janis took the 2014 FIVB U18 World Championship bronze in Termoli in partnership with Ingars Ivanovs.
Having teamed up with Martins Plavins in 2009, Smedins claimed his first World Tour medal by finishing second at Marseille 2010. The team also made the podium at EuroBeachVolley 2010 in Berlin, taking bronze. Two years later, they also went on a historic run to the London 2012 Olympic bronze and rode the momentum to celebrate World Tour gold at the first event after the Games, the Grand Slam in Stare Jablonki. That event, however, was their last as a team.
It was time for Samoilovs and Smedins to join forces and take on the path to becoming the most successful Latvian tandem to date.
Starting off with a Corrientes Grand Slam gold in May 2013 they went on to pile up an impressive tally of 13 gold, five silver and six bronze medals over their eight seasons on the Tour to date. The Latvian duo were also three-time Word Tour season champions, topping the rankings in 2013, 2014 and 2016.
“Our first big victory at the Grand Slam in Corrientes was the most memorable moment for us,” Samoilovs told Volleyball World. “Then in 2013, the first time we won the World Tour, we were first in the ranking before the last tournament in Durban. Nelson Mandela had just died and Sunday competition was cancelled, so on Saturday we had to play four matches in the heat. It was very important because we were fighting with Bruno Schmidt and Pedro Solberg for the first place and it was really tough.”
Samoilovs, dubbed the Lion King, and Smedins, nicknamed Kreilis (left-handed), had a lot of success on the continental scene too. Between 2013 and 2018, they failed to reach the EuroBeachVolley final only once. They earned four silver medals (2013, 2014, 2017 and 2018) and peaked in 2015 when they won gold in Klagenfurt.
“Winning the European Championship at the beach volleyball Mecca, in Klagenfurt, in front of the best fans in the world was another bright moment for us,” said Samoilovs. “It was nice to win the 2016 European Masters tournament in Latvia, in front of our home crowd, as well... But there are many other victories that remain as memorable moments for us too. Looking back to our cooperation with Janis, we certainly had a lot of good results. We are still the number one most winning European team. The Norwegian Vikings are definitely coming close, but we will show more results in the future trying to keep in the lead.”
The Latvian tandem are well within reach of qualifying for Tokyo 2020, which would be the fourth Olympic appearance for Samoilovs and the third for Smedins. While Janis has already been on the Olympic podium, Aleksandrs is still chasing his first medal and his optimistic outlook takes him even beyond Tokyo, to a fifth Olympics at Paris 2024.
“Janis’ brightest moment is definitely his bronze medal at the London Olympics. There were huge expectations from us ahead of Rio, but we didn’t do well there. We won our opening match, but it was a tough pool and we lost to Cuba and Brazil. We didn’t make it further from the pool, so we’ll go to Tokyo with new hunger and new emotions. Paris is definitely another goal. Players like Jake Gibb give you confidence that you can play for a long time in this sport," Samoilovs said.
Although the development of the sport has brought in tougher competition for the creative Latvians, Samoilovs is optimistic that they will cope with that as well.
“For the last 10 years, beach volleyball has become more athletic. We can see more and more big guys coming into the sport. In the past, a big guy would probably be a bad setter, a bad passer or a slow mover, but now all these huge guys are super athletic, but at the same time they are very technical, very coordinated players and can do everything well,” he commented.
“It has become harder and harder for guys like me and Janis to compete. We were the first ones who started doing the jump set and attacking a lot of second balls, and now we see more and more teams doing it. So we need to be clever and bring some new elements into beach volleyball in order to develop.”
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