Year in Review: women’s Beach Pro Tour 2024 – the year of Nuss & Kloth

The third season of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour is now history and a look back at what 2024 had to offer on the women’s side of top-calibre beach volleyball shows that while no team was able to emphatically dominate the Tour, we can still call it the year of Kristen Nuss & Taryn Kloth, as the Americans were the only women’s duo that was able to top three high-level podiums on the Tour, including this month’s Finals in Doha. Before that, Nuss & Kloth triumphed at the Espinho Elite16 and the Gstaad Elite16 stops.

The 2024 Beach Pro Tour offered the most extensive annual beach volleyball calendar of world-level events ever. As many as 54 stops were held with 49 of them including women’s tournaments – 30 Futures, eight Challenge, 10 Elite16 and one Finals events. Such a large number of events have never been held within one calendar year in the past, either on the Beach Pro Tour, or on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.

Let’s take a look back at the women’s podiums of the 10 events of the highest category, Elite16, and the season’s climax, the Doha Finals.

In early March, the Qatari capital Doha hosted the first Elite16 event in 2024. In the women’s final, Brazil’s Carol Solberg & Barbara Seixas overcame Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes & Brandie Wilkerson in straight sets, 2-0 (21-18, 21-18). The bronze went to reigning world champions Sara Hughes & Kelly Cheng of the United States.

The second Elite16 stop took place in Tepic, Mexico during the second half of April. In a hard-fought gold medal showdown, resolved deep into the overtime of the tie-breaker, Switzerland’s Tanja Huberli & Nina Brunner celebrated a 2-1 (21-14, 19-21, 19-17) victory over Netherlands’ Katja Stam & Raisa Schoon. Carol & Barbara made the podium again, this time in third place.

The Beach Pro Tour visited Brazil in early May for an Elite16 event in the capital Brasilia. The women’s final offered a top-level clash between the number one and the number two teams in the FIVB World Ranking. Chart leaders Ana Patricia Ramos & Eduarda Santos Lisboa (Duda) of Brazil delighted the home crowd with a 2-0 (21-17, 21-14) sweep of their game against USA’s Kristen Nuss & Taryn Kloth. Switzerland’s Esmee Bobner & Zoe Verge-Depre took the bronze.

The iconic Atlantic oceanside venue on the beach in Espinho, Portugal welcomed an Elite16 tournament in late May. This time, Nuss & Kloth emerged on top of the podium after a dramatic 2-1 (17-21, 28-26, 15-10) turnaround against Huberli & Brunner in the gold medal match. Stam & Schoon picked up the bronze.

Two weeks later, in early June, another iconic venue, situated within the ironworks of an industrial heritage site in Ostrava, Czechia, hosted the last Elite16 competition that counted towards Paris 2024 Olympic qualification. Hughes & Cheng snatched the trophy after a tough 2-1 (21-13, 21-23, 15-12) three-set final against Melissa & Brandie. The bronze went to Latvia’s Tina Graudina & Anastasija Samoilova.

Nuss & Kloth topped the podium again at the Gstaad Elite16 in Switzerland in early July. They persevered through another three-set final to celebrate a 2-1 (19-21, 21-15, 15-11) comeback victory over fellow Americans Terese Cannon & Megan Kraft. Tina & Anastasija made it two in a row by grabbing another bronze.

The following week, the Austrian capital Vienna hosted the last Elite16 stop before the Paris Olympics. Germany’s Svenja Muller & Cinja Tillmann earned their first Beach Pro Tour medal of the season. In the final, they mastered a 2-0 (21-14, 21-18) shutout of Switzerland’s Joana Mader & Anouk Verge-Depre. Cannon & Kraft made it to their second consecutive Elite16 podium, this time with bronze.

The first Elite16 event after the Olympics was held in Hamburg, Germany in late August. The women’s gold medal match was once again resolved after a three-set battle, with Huberli & Brunner celebrating a 2-1 (21-18, 18-21, 18-16) win over home favourites Muller & Tillmann. Thamela Coradello & Victoria Lopes of Brazil collected the bronze.

The Beach Pro Tour went back to Brazil for two more Elite16 events in October and November. In the Joao Pessoa final, Thamela & Victoria dominated an all-Brazilian duel with Talita Antunes & Taiana Lima to produce a 2-0 (21-14, 21-14) sweep. USA’s Teegan Van Gunst & Kimberly Hildreth completed the women’s podium.

Two weeks later, in Rio de Janeiro, Carol & Barbara reigned supreme. After winning the first Elite16 of the year, they also won the last one after shutting out Cannon & Kraft by 2-0 (21-17, 21-18) in the gold medal showdown. Thamela & Victoria earned the bronze to climb on their third back-to-back Elite16 podium.

Then, it was time for the premier Beach Pro Tour event of the year, the Finals. In early December, the 2024 Tour went back to where it started in March, the Qatari capital Doha. And it was time for Nuss & Kloth to shine again. In an all-American final against Cannon & Kraft, they delivered a 2-0 (21-19, 21-17) victory to pick up their third gold and fourth overall medal on the 2024 Tour and triumph as champions of the Finals. It was a great end of the season for Cannon & Kraft as well. This way they reached the podium at each of their last four appearances on the Tour, collecting three silvers and a bronze. The Doha Finals bronze was claimed by Tina & Anastasija, who managed a 2-0 (24-22, 21-16) win over China’s Xue Chen & Xia Xinyi in the third-place match.

Four-time Olympian Xue Chen excelled at the Challenge level in 2024 as the only female player to collect three gold medals in the Beach Pro Tour’s second strongest category. She and Xia topped the podiums in Saquarema, Brazil and in Stare Jablonki, Poland. Xue also triumphed in Haikou, China alongside Zeng Jinjin.

The remaining five Challenge tournaments in 2024 were won by: Tina & Anastasija in Recife, Brazil, Esmee & Zoe in Guadalajara, Mexico, Germany’s Karla Borger & Sandra Ittlinger in Xiamen, China, Ukraine’s Maryna Hladun & Tetiana Lazarenko in Chennai, India and USA’s Molly Shaw & Toni Rodriguez in Nuvali, Philippines.

Germany’s Anna-Lena Grune & Chenoa Christ, on the other hand, stood out as the only team that collected three gold medals at the Futures level during the year - in Nuvali, Philippines, in Messina, Italy and in Rakvere, Estonia. Another two players also picked up three Futures gold medals each, but as members of different pairs – USA’s Madelyne Anderson and Australia’s Stefanie Fejes.

Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour 2024: all results

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