Barbara looking for a fresh start with Carol in 2021

The arrival of a new year prompts people around the world to make changes in their lives and careers and that is also true for Barbara Seixas in 2021. In the first days of the year, the Rio 2016 Olympic silver medallist has announced a new beach volleyball partnership with another veteran and accomplished Brazilian player in the person of Carol Salgado.

Barbara and Carol are both coming from a 2020 season in which they had new partners in Carolina Horta and Talita Antunes, but only got to play on the Brazilian Circuit. After the last tournament of the past year, the two talked and decided to join forces for the second half of their national season and the upcoming international events.

“I expect us to be a competitive team and to be able to consistently perform well,” Barbara told Volleyball World. “Carol is very experienced too and we know how to deal with every step of the process that’s ahead of us. She reached out saying she wanted to play as a full-time blocker again, after splitting the net duties with Talita last year, and I thought it was a good opportunity for both of us. We’re both very competitive and will work hard for our goals.”

The blocker’s call has helped to materialize a partnership that, to the eyes of many in the country, was long overdue. Barbara and Carol are both 33 and have perfectly complementary styles on the court, with the former being an elite right-sided defender and the latter having spent the bulk of her career as a left-sided blocker.

The two, who have always lived in Rio de Janeiro and spent their entire careers training no more than a kilometer away from each other, even have some experience of playing together. Barbara and Carol teamed up for both the 2003 and 2004 FIVB U-19 Beach Volleyball World Championships and took home the silver medal on both occasions.

After 16 years, they have finally decided to join forces for the long-term.

“It’s funny because looking at our skillsets and our backgrounds, this partnership makes sense in a lot of ways and maybe it could have happened before,” Barbara reflected. “But I believe everything in life happens when it’s supposed to happen, so we just want to try and make the most of it now. We are the same age, but she started her career earlier and we followed different paths, but it’s exciting that we got to meet again now after so many years. It will be fun to be together in another moment of our careers.”

Their paths could have been different, but through their own trajectories, both players have amassed a lot of international experience over the 16 years they’ve been separated. Carol, a two-time U-21 world champion, spent most of this time with her sister Maria Clara Salgado before joining Maria Elisa Antonelli in 2017. She has played in 175 international tournaments since 2004.

Barbara, who won three age-group World Championships (one U-19 and two U-21), didn’t start to consistently compete internationally until 2008, but has experienced all the ups and downs of a beach volleyball player’s career in the last two Olympic quads.

The defender enjoyed a great amount of success with Agatha Bednarczuk between 2012 and 2016, most notably winning the 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships and collecting the silver medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

The next three years with Fernanda Berti and the 2020 season with Carolina Horta weren’t nearly as successful, but she’s thankful for the growth each of these experiences provided.

“The last two quads were completely different,” Barbara analysed. “With Agatha, I think we managed to consistently get better as a team and that culminated with our Olympic medal. With Fernanda, we had a slow start in 2017 and much better results in 2018, but unfortunately had some difficulties in 2019 with some tournaments been canceled. And with Carol Horta, it was a shorter partnership and the pandemic made it very difficult for us to find a rhythm as a team. The outcomes were all different, but each of these experiences was really important for my growth and made me mature a lot as a player.”

The task of coaching the new team is handed to another veteran of the Brazilian sands. Leticia Pessoa, a three-time Olympic silver medallist and a winner of multiple FIVB World Tour gold medals with a variety of teams.

That too is another change in Barbara’s career, as she spent the majority of the last decade being coached by her husband, Rico de Freitas, who recently took over the Canadian team of Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson.

Barbara has been working with Leticia since last year and believes she and the team's coaching staff will provide Carol and herself with the guidance they need to succeed.

“Working with Leticia has been great,” she added. “After several years with Rico, it’s been nice having a new coach who brings a different perspective and even more if it’s someone as experienced and accomplished as she is. I’m very excited about the coaching staff we were able to put together and we’re confident each of them has what it takes to help us accomplish our goals.”

The team’s debut is set for the end of this week, during the sixth event of the 2020-2021 Brazilian Circuit season, in Saquarema. The two should remain busy with the national season until March, but can’t wait for the international calendar to be released so they can plan their next steps as a team.

Both Barbara, who has won 22 World Tour medals with three different partners, and Carol, who has taken her place on a podium 24 times with a pair of teammates, believe international competition will play a big role in the team’s development.

“As a new team, we want to play as much as possible,” Barbara stated. “It’s important that we can make the adjustments every new team needs and that we get into a good rhythm. The calendar is not out yet and it’s difficult for us to plan and set goals, so we’re really taking it one day at a time and as lightly as possible. Both of us are very competitive and ambitious, so it’s important to try and improve every single day now so we’re in a good position to chase big things in the future.”

More beach volleyball from Brazil:
Talita and Maria Elisa back together in 2021

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