PARIS — Some of the world’s best beach volleyball is coming from places better known for snow than for sand.
Norway, the defending Olympic gold medalist, is undefeated through pool play at the Summer Games. Sweden arrived in Paris with an innovative jump-set that helped it climb to the top of the international rankings.
And as the Paris Games move into the knockout round, the teams no one wants to play aren’t from traditional beach volleyball powers like the United States and Brazil but rather from Scandinavia.
“When we watched beach volleyball when we were growing up, it was USA, Brazil, our Aussie boys,” Mark Nicolaidis of Australia said after losing the opening match to the Swedes. “Now every country has got teams.
“Anyone can beat anyone on any day. You just can’t come out, underestimate anyone at all. There’s not really one nation that absolutely dominates,” he said. “It’s everyone on their own day.”
Beach volleyball traces its roots to Hawaii, and the two-person format that has been played in the Olympics since 1996 was born on the Southern California coast. At Brazilian beaches like Copacabana and Ipanema, the sport became a national pastime.
So it’s no surprise that the United States and Brazil have ruled the sands at the Summer Games, winning seven of the first eight medals. (Australia took the women’s gold in Sydney.) On the women’s side, the U.S., Brazil and Australia swept the medals in every Olympics through 2012 except Beijing, where China won silver and bronze.
The dominance was so complete that when the Germans swept the golds in London, Laura Ludwig had to ask three-time Olympic champion Kerri Walsh Jennings where to go for the medal ceremony.
“Before it was maybe Brazil and U.S. dominating. Now those American teams are getting a lot of competition from the Europeans,” said Anders Mol of Norway, who along with Christian Sorum is attempting to become the first men’s pair to repeat as Olympic champion.
“And I think it’s great for the sport, and for the development, to see,” he said. “The level has never been higher, worldwide.”
In Tokyo, in fact, there were no Americans or Brazilians in the men’s final four, a first; instead, Russia won silver and Qatar took bronze, with Latvia losing in the third-place match. (Americans April Ross and Alix Klineman won the women’s gold, but it was the lone U.S. medal for the second straight Olympics.)
And that’s no accident.
The International Volleyball Federation has invested more than $35 million on an empowerment program to bring the sport to countries with little beach - or even indoor volleyball - tradition.
A continental qualifier system helps round out the Olympic field in a more representative way, opening the door to Paris for teams from Morocco, Egypt and Japan. (Olympic country quotas have long prevented any nation from grabbing more than two spots in the men’s or women’s field.)
And the FIVB says it is working.
There are men’s teams from 152 different countries, and 131 for the women, on the international tour - up from around 40 for the 2012 Olympic cycle, the federation said. Tournaments are hosted in 35 countries, including India, South Africa and Morocco - almost double the number from just two years ago.
“The sport is growing and that’s an important thing,” said Esteban Grimalt of Chile. “New teams, new countries getting really good teams. It’s great.”
Mol said the sport has a long tradition in his homeland that is just beginning to pay off on the medal stand; his mother, Merita Berntsen, played beach for Norway in the Atlanta Games, finishing tied for ninth. For countries where volleyball infrastructure is less developed, the beach side allows for a quicker ramp-up because it requires only two people, instead of a dozen for the indoor game.
“I think it’s easier to find two great athletes than to find a whole indoor national team,” Mol said. “So you just need two great athletes and really work hard with them. And I think that’s what happened with us. And it’s also what happened with the Swedish boys.”
You don’t even need a beach.
“We also have, like, indoor beach volleyball facilities, so you can practice even if it’s snowing outside,” said David Ahman of Sweden, who is paired with Jonatan Hellvig on the No. 1-ranked team in the world. “I think that’s really important for us in Sweden to, to be able to practice all year.”
Mol insists that Norway has beautiful beaches, and the FIVB international tour makes an annual stop in Stavanger. But the water temperature reaches only about 60 degrees Fahrenheit (16 Celsius) in August; the Norwegians have more than twice as many medals in the Winter Games as the Summer Games.
So where would a Scandinavian go if he really got the urge for a beach vacation?
“Anywhere,” Ahman said, “that’s warmer than Sweden.”
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