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For the first time in Olympic history, the gold-medal winners in beach volleyball hail from Sweden.
Sweden's David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig defeated Germany's Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler in Saturday's gold-medal game in two sets to claim the title. Norway's Christian Sørum and Anders Mol, who won gold in Tokyo in 2021, earned bronze after defeating Qatar's Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan.
Sweden has been dominant throughout the Olympics in beach volleyball, and now Åhman and Hellvig have their first gold medal.
Medal Winners
Gold: David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig, Sweden
Silver: Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler, Germany
Bronze: Christian Sørum and Anders Mol, Norway
Coming into the Olympics, longtime teammates Åhman and Hellvig were ranked No. 1 by the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Rankings. Once they got to Paris, they proved that they deserved that ranking.
The two dropped two early matchups in the preliminary phase to Qatar and Italy, but once the tournament started, they were unconscious. Sweden beat Cuba in three sets in the round of 16, Brazil in the quarterfinals and Qatar in the semifinals before advancing to Saturday's final against Germany.
Coming into the match, Germany had all the momentum. It hadn't lost through the preliminary phase and beat Brazil, The Netherlands and Norway on the way to the final. Once they faced off against Åhman and Hellvig, Ehlers and Wickler just couldn't get it done.
The gold-medal match was completely one-sided as Sweden won the first set 21-10 and the second set 21-13.
Åhman and Hellvig are both just 22 years old and playing in their first Olympics. After the way they dominated in Paris, it won't be surprising if the two can come home with another gold in Los Angeles in 2028.
Chase Budinger's dream of an Olympic medal is over.
Budinger and partner Miles Evans were swept 2-0 by the Norwegian duo of Anders Mol and Christian Sørum in Monday's Round of 16 play. Mol and Sørum won both matches in the best-of-3 format with relative ease, taking the first 21-16 and the second 21-14.
Budinger and Miles were heavy underdogs to Mol and Sørum, who are the reigning gold medal winners and favorites to repeat their triumph from the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo. The Norwegian duo looked the part on Monday and will go into the quarterfinals with all of the momentum in their favor.
Budinger, who played seven NBA seasons before embarking on a volleyball career, should nevertheless see his Olympic run as nothing short of a success. Spending seven years in the NBA is an accomplishment by itself. Doing so and then turning your attention to a completely different sport in your late 20s and then reaching Olympic heights is essentially unheard of.
Budinger is the first player to compete in both the NBA and Olympic volleyball.
Fellow Americans Miles Partain and Andy Benesh also reached the Round of 16 and will compete later Monday against the Italian duo of Paolo Nicolai and Samuele Cottafava.
Miles Evans and former NBA player Chase Budinger lost their final match in men's volleyball group play at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris to the Spanish duo of Pablo Herrera and Adrián Gavira on Friday.
The 21-18, 21-11 loss dropped the Americans to third in Pool F with a 1-2 record, but their run in Paris isn't necessarily over yet.
In addition to each of the six group winners and six group runners-up, the top two third-place teams advance to the knockout stage, as do the winners in the "lucky loser" bracket.
Although there are still some group matches to be played, Evans and Budinger are currently among the four teams in line to compete in a lucky loser match.
If Evans and Budinger win their lucky loser match on Saturday, they will advance to the Round of 16.
The 36-year-old Budinger is making his Olympic debut this year, but not in the sport most would have predicted years ago.
After starring as a collegiate basketball player at the University of Arizona, Budinger was selected in the second round of the 2009 NBA draft.
He went on to spend seven seasons in the NBA with the Houston Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Indiana Pacers and Phoenix Suns, averaging 7.9 points, 3.0 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 1.0 three-pointer made per contest.
After playing professionally in Spain from 2016 to 2017, Budinger decided to retire and pursue volleyball.
It turned out to be a natural fit due to Budinger's height (6'7") and athleticism, which was on display during his basketball career, as he threw down plenty of highlight-reel dunks, and even competed in the 2012 NBA Slam Dunk Contest.
While Budinger quickly rose through the beach volleyball ranks, he ran into a much more experienced and accomplished team on Friday.
Herrera and Gavira are the longest-running team in the Olympic men's beach volleyball field, as they are playing in their fourth consecutive Olympics together.
They have yet to win an Olympic medal as a team, but the 42-year-old Herrera won a silver medal with a different partner at the 2004 Summer Games in Athens.
Budinger and Evans will have to wait and see if they will have an opportunity to advance through the lucky loser bracket, but the other American team of Miles Partain and Andy Benesh has already reached the knockout round by virtue of finishing second in Pool D with a 2-1 record.
Kerri Walsh Jennings and the United States won the women's beach volleyball gold medal in the past three Olympics, but the sport crowned a new champion Wednesday at the 2016 Rio Games.
Germany's Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst captured the gold with a straight-sets victory over silver medalists Agatha Bednarczuk and Barbara Seixas de Freitas of Brazil, while Walsh Jennings and teammate April Ross earned bronze with a three-set win over Brazil's Larissa Franca Maestrini and Talita Rocha.
| Match | Winning Team | Losing Team | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold Medal | Germany (Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst) | Brazil (Agatha Bednarczuk and Barbara Seixas de Freitas) | 2-0 (21-18, 21-14) |
| Bronze Medal | United States (Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross) | Brazil (Larissa Franca Maestrini and Talita Rocha) | 2-1 (17-21, 21-17, 15-9) |
Bednarczuk and Seixas de Freitas may have looked unbeatable when they eliminated Ross and Walsh Jennings in the semifinals, but Ludwig and Walkenhorst left little doubt on Wednesday who the best team was at the Rio Olympics.
The Germans earned a hard-fought 21-18 victory in the first set and then dictated the tempo for the remainder of the match in a relatively straightforward 21-14 second set. Germany's overall defense was too much for the home side, as Brazil didn't finish with a single ace and couldn't keep up with Walkenhorst's blocks.
Walkenhorst tallied seven successful blocks in all, per the Rio Games' official website. Nick Zaccardi of NBC's Olympic Talk noted success on the beach is nothing new for Germany:
The Germans were far from intimidated by the partial crowd in the early going of Wednesday's match. The two teams traded runs in the first set, but Ludwig and Walkenhorst seized control with a 4-0 spurt when it was tied at 13.
The result was a 17-13 lead, which they eventually turned into a 21-18 victory in the first set. Ludwig and Walkenhorst quieted the crowd and had all the momentum, which they carried over into the second set.
Germany won six of the first seven points of that second set and created enough separation where it could simply trade points and streaks for the remainder of the match. That is exactly what it did behind those impressive blocks on the way to a 15-10 advantage.
A quick run from Brazil made it 16-13, but Germany again took full control. A Ludwig ace made it 18-13, and two more points gave the Germans an overwhelming seven match points. It took them two, as Seixas de Freitas hit the final serve out of bounds.
While it wasn't the gold she earned in Beijing and London, Walsh Jennings became the most decorated athlete in the history of beach volleyball on Wednesday with a thrilling three-set win over Brazil, as Rio 2016 noted:
According to the Rio Games' official website, Brazil was more effective with the serve with six aces to only one for the Americans, but the defense from the United States proved to be the difference. Walsh Jennings notched six successful blocks, while Ross tallied 15 digs in a display of defensive brilliance.
Maestrini and Rocha controlled the early scoring. It was clear they had an initial strategy against one of the all-time greats with timely placed shots and effective passing, which helped them build a 17-12 lead.
Nate Scott of USA Today reacted to the first set:
Larissa and Talita clearly in Walsh Jennings' head with all these dink and dunk shots. She's backing off at net, overthinking stuff.
— Nate Scott (@aNateScott) August 18, 2016
From there, the Brazilians finished the first-set win at 21-17. NBC Olympics shared their celebration:
The United States appeared well on its way to a straight-set loss when it fell behind 11-8 after a Rocha ace. However, it bounced back with the most important run of the match with five straight points and turned a 14-12 deficit into a 17-14 lead.
The Americans kept the momentum rolling and won the set 21-17 to force a decisive third.
The third started in a back-and-forth fashion when the two teams split the opening 12 points, but the Americans won nine of the final 12 to win the match 15-9:
Walsh Jennings went home with a medal for the fourth straight Olympics. This time, she did it alongside Ross after winning gold with Misty May-Treanor in the previous three Games.
Walsh Jennings said her victory in the bronze medal match actually meant more than her previous golden triumphs, per Scott:
Once you win a semifinal, the gold medal match is easy. No disrespect to win the gold medal, it takes everything you have, but you’re going to go home with a medal. The bronze medal match is the gnarliest match I’ve ever played in my career, because you either go home with a beautiful medal or you get nothing. And for me it just meant so much more, because last night just felt so bad to play like that. Losing happens, but losing that way is just something that is unacceptable to me.
She was also asked about the possibility of playing in the 2020 Games in Tokyo and said, “I haven’t spent one second thinking about that. I have no room in me to think about tomorrow.”
If she doesn’t come back for the 2020 Olympics, she will go out as arguably the best player in beach volleyball history. She cemented that legacy even further with another medal on Wednesday.
USA volleyball players April Ross and Brooke Sweat narrowly avoided Olympic disaster on Sunday.
The duo’s American Airlines connection flight from Miami to Rio was delayed, and the next one was on Saturday. Given that the Opening Ceremony for the 2016 games is on Friday, that would’ve been a catastrophe.
Luckily, United Airlines was able to come through in the clutch. They caught a Sunday night flight.
[Twitter, Instagram, h/t For the Win]
