Gstaad in starting blocks

Prepare yourselves: Instagram posts of coffee mugs with lush, green mountains in the background are coming. Dozens of them. Maybe hundreds, if you count each Instagram story as well. Typically, pictures and videos of beach volleyball players zooming up and down the Alps, with their breathtaking views, would accompany these as well, but with COVID protocols and bubbles being erected, it might just be the coffees and mountains we see this time around.

All of this, of course, is a long way of saying that one of the most beloved stops on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, in Gstaad, Switzerland, is back.

The World Tour has stopped in Gstaad, a bucolic mountain town, every year since 2001.

And Gstaad remains the stop with one of the coolest trophies, a massive cowbell that makes any return trip through the airport a comical one (the gigantic Viking sword of Stavanger presents similarly hilarious issues).

But what makes this year’s Gstaad event particularly unique is the timing: it is the final major event prior to the Tokyo Olympic Games. Because of this, some teams – take Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena, Jake Gibb and Taylor Crabb, April Ross and Alix Klineman – have dropped out, choosing instead to train and get as healthy as possible before the Games.

Yet for those that remain in the field, it presents a final tune-up before the biggest event of what became a five-year Olympic quad. With that tune-up comes a number of intriguing storylines.

The first question, of course, is whether Sarah Sponcil and Kelly Claes can continue their torrid streak of two consecutive victories. After going 99 FIVB matches without a gold medal, Claes and Sponcil won in Sochi, Russia, overtaking Kerri Walsh Jennings and Brooke Sweat in the Olympic race in the process. Then they did it again, winning another six straight matches to claim gold in Ostrava.

Two tournaments, 12 matches won, two gold medals won, zero matches lost.

Can they stay the hottest team in the world?

On the men’s side, the most intriguing question is quite the opposite: will Norwegians Anders Mol and Christian Sorum regain their top form in the leadup to the Tokyo Games? After a characteristically dominant showing in Cancun, in which Mol and Sorum won both events in which they competed, they had two of the strangest finishes of their partnership: 17th in Sochi, ninth in Ostrava. Now, for most teams, this isn’t all that bad, or strange. In fact, it’s quite normal. But Mol and Sorum are anything but normal; they’ve been one of the most dominant teams in history throughout this Olympic qualification period and won the European Championships thrice in a row.

Will Mol and Sorum regain their form with just weeks left prior to the Opening Ceremony?

As for the female one seed, Australians Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy, well, they’re a delightful enigma of their own. With travel restrictions being as tight as they are, and given how far Australia is from virtually any event on the beach volleyball calendar, Artacho del Solar and Clancy have played the fewest events of any team qualified for the Olympics. In fact, they’ve played barely half of the events of Japan’s Miki Ishii and Megumi Murakami, who competed in a staggering 25 tournaments throughout the quad.

When Clancy and Artacho del Solar do compete, however, they change the landscape of the tournament. They’ve medalled in half of their events throughout the qualification period, including a recent gold in the final event in Cancun, where they used a stunning comeback to defeat Brazilians Agatha Bednarczuk and Eduarda 'Duda' Lisboa.

Will they be their usual, entertaining, indomitable selves after two months off?

Similar to Artacho del Solar and Clancy, the world has not seen much of Germans Clemens Wickler and Julius Thole of late. Prior to Cancun, Wickler was out, and Thole subbed in Yannick Harms for two events. Then, in Sochi, when they were scheduled to resume competing together, Thole was hobbling around on crutches, and they forfeited their two matches before withdrawing from Ostrava. The only appearance we’ve seen from the Germans has been in 2021’s debut event, in Doha, where they finished ninth.

After months and months of injuries and setbacks, will the Germans remain the team that won a pair of silver medals at the 2019 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships and World Tour Finals?

Injuries have played a part in Sara Hughes’ career of late – not to her, mind you, but her partner, Summer Ross. After winning the FIVB Top Rookie award in 2017, Hughes partnered with Ross, and they were widely considered to be favourites in the U.S. Olympic race to Tokyo. But a litany of back injuries forced Ross potentially into retirement, leaving Hughes in a bit of a partner limbo at a strange time. In five events this year, all with Emily Day, Hughes has lost in five straight country quotas.

Now, however, Hughes and Day are straight into the main draw in Gstaad, where they can compete without the constricting pressure of the single-elimination country quota, followed by a single-elimination qualifier.

Now that they are back in the main draw, will Hughes and Day return to the level at which they have both proved they can compete?

The storylines, per usual, are virtually endless. Only one thing is for certain: Instagram will be full of coffee and stunningly green mountains.

FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour - Gstaad
Tournament website
Men's Entry List
Women's Entry List