Agatha snatches 1,000th career victory

Brazilian Olympic medallist Agatha Bednarczuk reached an important milestone on Friday as the 38-year-old veteran won a professional beach volleyball match for the 1,000th time in her career.

The historic victory took place during the third event of the 2021 Brazilian Tour season, which is currently running in Rio de Janeiro, where Agatha and partner Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa defeated Vanilda ‘Val’ Leao and Verena Oliveira 2-0 (21-14, 21-15) in their second pool match in the tournament.

“I lost a lot of matches in the Brazilian Tour before I got to win my first one,” she reflected. “I started playing beach a little late, so I never imagined I could one day reach this mark or even accomplish everything I have. I believe that winning a match for the 1,000th time just speaks about my persistence and how much I love the sport and to compete. And it’s another opportunity to look back and realize how much the sport has given me.”

A Rio 2016 Olympic silver medallist, Agatha has first competed internationally in 2005, and has won 452 FIVB World Tour matches so far. She has played in 138 international events, winning medals in 49 of them, including 11 golds, with four different partners.

“When I think about 1,000 wins, the first thing that comes to my mind are the 15 partners I had in my career and each member of each coaching staff I got to work with,” she said. “I’m very thankful that I had each of them as part of my career and very aware that I wouldn’t have done this without them. In sport, you can’t succeed alone and I’ve been fortunate to have great people around me.”

Agatha and Duda, who recently announced they’ll go separate ways at the end of the year, won yet another match on Friday, securing a straight-set (21-18, 21-14) win over Angela Vieira and Victoria ‘Tory’ Paranagua to advance to the quarterfinals, where they will meet Andressa Cavalcanti and Vitoria Rodrigues on Saturday. The medal matches in Rio will be played on Sunday.

Quick links:
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Finals
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Youtube