Olympic Beach Volleyball Rankings: Cuba continues rising with Tepic bronze
Olympics Beach
Travis Mewhirter
April 22, 2024
The race for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games officially began in February 2023 in Doha, Qatar, with the Volleyball World Elite16. The 2024 season began the first week of March back in Doha, and the final event of the Olympic qualification cycle will be the Ostrava Elite16, which ends on June 9. We’ll be providing these updates for the Beach Volleyball Olympic rankings after international points-earning tournaments:
The rise of Cuba’s Jorge Alayo and Noslen Diaz has been as swift as it has been astonishing.
Entering the 2024 beach volleyball season, they had less than 4,000 Olympic points to their name and only five of the required 12 finishes. It wasn’t so much a matter if they could qualify, but if they would even play enough events to be in the discussion. They were, at best, an afterthought. And then they won a silver at the Recife Challenge … and another at the Saquarema Challenge … and made another semifinal last week in Guadalajara … and another this weekend at the Tepic Elite16. Hauling in the 1,000 point bounty that comes with an Elite16 bronze medal,
Alayo and Diaz jumped nine spots and now sit No. 23 in the Olympic rankings and with still two finishes to add to the ledger.
Now, they are no longer an afterthought. They’re all but a guarantee to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games on points. It’s welcome news for Canadians Sam Schachter and Dan Dearing, who will — if they do not make it in on points themselves — in all likelihood, avoid the gauntlet that is Cuba in the Continental Cup. Their best opponent remaining will be Mexico’s Miguel Sarabia and Gabriel Cruz. Alas, that is a long ways out, and Cuba is still no lock. But with their biggest point finish to date, and a white-hot streak to begin the season, it would, at this juncture, be more of a surprise if they do not qualify.
While the Swiss women’s Olympic race alas took a back seat in Tepic, with both Verge-Depre sisters sitting out, the German women’s race took center stage. Sandra Ittlinger and Karla Borger took advantage of the opportunity to knock out Germany’s No. 2, Laura Ludwig and Louisa Lippmann, in the ninth-place rounds, claiming a fifth and cutting the gap to Ludwig and Lippmann to just 180 points.
The Canadian women’s race, too, grew more interesting as Sarah Pavan and Molly McBain reaped the good fortune of a lucky loser coin flip to sneak into the main draw. Once there, they broke pool, took a ninth, and the valuable 600 Olympic qualifying points that came with it.
Cubans Noslen Diaz and Jorge Alayo celebrate a bronze medal at the Tepic Elite16/Volleyball World photo
Men’s Beach Volleyball Olympic Rankings
(updated April 22 after the Tepic Elite16)
David Ahman, Jonatan Hellvig, SWEDEN, 11220 (10)
Anders Mol, Christian Sorum, NORWAY, 10460 (10)
Nils Ehlers, Clemens Wickler, GERMANY, 9540 (12)
Andre Loyola, George Wanderley, BRAZIL, 9480 (12)
Sam Cottafava, Paolo Nicolai, ITALY, 8800 (12)
Evandro Goncalves, Arthur Mariano, BRAZIL, 8660 (12)
Ondrej Perusic, David Schweiner, Czech Republic, 8380 (9)
Alex Brouwer, Robert Meeuwsen, NETHERLANDS, 8300 (12)
Andy Benesh, Miles Partain, USA, 8220 (10)
Adrian Gavira, Pablo Herrera, SPAIN, 8080 (12)
Theo Brunner, Trevor Crabb, USA, 7860 (12)
Michal Bryl, Bartosz Losiak, POLAND, 7840 (10)
Adrian Carambula, Alex Ranghieri, ITALY, 7840 (12)
Matthew Immers, Steven van de Velde, NETHERLANDS, 7620 (12)
Stefan Boermans, Yorick de Groot, NETHERLANDS, 7400 (9)
Thomas Hodges, Zachery Schubert, AUSTRALIA, 7380 (12)
Julian Horl, Alex Horst, AUSTRIA, 7260 (12)
Chase Budinger, Miles Evans, USA, 7240 (12)
Cherif Samba, Ahmed Tijan, QATAR, 7200 (10)
Pedro Solberg, Guto Carvalhaes, BRAZIL, 7120 (12)
Vitor Felipe, Renato Lima, BRAZIL, 6760 (12)
Esteban Grimalt, Marco Grimalt, CHILE, 6680 (12)
Jorge Alayo, Noslen Diaz, CUBA, 6580 (10)
Tri Bourne, Chaim Schalk, USA, 6580 (12)
Moritz Pristauz, Robin Seidl, AUSTRIA, 6500 (12)
Hendrik Mol, Mathias Berntsen, NORWAY, 6020 (12)
Piotr Kantor, Jakub Zdybek, POLAND, 5960 (12)
Sam Schachter, Dan Dearing, CANADA, 5900 (12)
Daniele Lupo, Enrico Rossi, ITALY, 5720 (12)
Paul Burnett, Chris McHugh, AUSTRALIA, 5460 (12)
Javier Bello, Joaquin Bello, ENGLAND, 5420 (12)
Sergiy Popov, Eduard Reznik, UKRAINE, 5300 (11)
Women’s Beach Volleyball Olympic Rankings
(updated April 22 after Tepic Elite16)
Duda Lisboa, Ana Patricia Silva, BRAZIL, 11820 (12)
Kristen Nuss, Taryn Kloth, USA, 10860 (12)
Kelly Cheng, Sara Hughes, USA, 10640 (12)
Carolina Salgado, Barbara Seixas, BRAZIL, 10440 (12)
To qualify for the Olympic Games via the Olympic rankings, teams use their best 12 finishes throughout the Olympic qualifying period, which ends June 9, 2024. The top 17 from the Olympic rankings will punch their tickets to the Paris Olympics. The remaining seven spots are allotted to five continental cup champions, the winner of the 2023 World Championships, and the French wild card.
Each country is limited to two teams who can earn a spot in the Olympic Games.
Teams can never push out good finishes. Once you hit your 12, you only replace your worst finishes. In parentheses below is the number of events each pair has played.
You earn points as a team. Therefore, if a team breaks up and the individuals select new partners, they begin with zero Olympic ranking points, although they keep their individual entry points to get into events.
