How the 2020 Olympic postponement could impact each team in the race
SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter25 Mar 2020

How the 2020 Olympic postponement could impact each team in the race

On Tuesday morning, what seemed to be the inevitable alas became a reality: The 2020 Olympic Games were postponed, to sometime in 2021. For some, it’s heartbreaking.

“I can understand why other people are devastated,” said Sarah Sponcil, who is third in the Olympic race with Kelly Claes. “They waited literally four years and now they have to wait five.”

Notice that Sponcil said “others” when mentioning those who are devastated. For some, the Olympic postponement is devastating. For others, it’s a blessing not even in disguise: It’s just a blessing.

This week on SANDCAST: Beach volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter, we discussed, among a number of covid-19-related topics – is there anything else to discuss at this point, anyway? – how each team in the Olympic race could benefit or set them back from the postponement. We dug into how, depending on the FIVB schedule and any changes the IOC makes regarding the qualification process, the postponement could put additional teams in the race.

Here’s a team by team breakdown of the impact the postponement could have.

Women

April Ross, Alix Klineman

U.S.A. rank: 1

Points: 8,760

This one is difficult to pin down whether it hurts or benefits. On the one hand, Ross and Klineman were coming off their best season together, with five AVP finals in five tournaments and three wins on the world tour. They could have continued that upwards trajectory all the way to Tokyo. On the other hand, it gives Klineman another year to develop on the beach, which she has done at such a rate you’d be forgiven to think she hasn’t been playing on the AVP her entire volleyball career. It’s a bit neutral for these two, who are still all but a lock to go to Tokyo, no matter what year the Games are held. They didn’t seem to be in a hurry to play this year as it was, as they decided not to play in the Cancun four-star that was eventually cancelled, so perhaps this will be a good rest period to heal up the nagging injuries that build up.

Until then, you can find Ross going viral with what has become the April Ross Challenge.

Kerri Walsh Jennings, Brooke Sweat

U.S.A. rank: 2

Points: 6,960

The immediate reaction when thinking of these two is that it would have to negatively impact them. But the more one would think about it, the more that might not be entirely accurate. Yes, Walsh Jennings and Sweat are on the older side of the athletic spectrum, at 41 and 33 years old, respectively. Yes, they have quite a list of injuries and surgeries on the ledger. But Sponcil said it best: “Kerri is a machine,” she said on Tuesday. “She’s just going to keep going all out.”

If there is one athlete in the world who can take this and benefit from it, it might be Walsh Jennings, whose three gold medals and five Olympic appearances did not come by accident. That, and she gets time at home, with her family, when she would otherwise be circumnavigating the world.

Sarah Sponcil, Kelly Claes

U.S.A. rank: 3

Points: 6,640

There are two teams that I really don’t see any downside to this: Sponcil and Claes, and Kelley Larsen and Emily Stockman. For these two, it’s all upside.

“Everyone’s been asking how we feel about it and I feel great because the last year I’ve just been like ‘Ok, let’s get as many points as we can, let’s pass Kerri, it’s crunch time,’” Sponcil said. “It would have been crunch time right now and now I have the time to process the opportunity I have in front of me. I’m trying my hardest to slow down and be like ‘Whoa this is an amazing opportunity having another year to get experience, to slow down a little bit, and take it all in.’ It’s the best thing for our team and for me personally.”

It gives them more time to develop, both as players and professionals, and it allows them, as Sponcil mentioned, to finally slow down. Catch a breath. Sleep for a change. Sponcil has been competing at a breakneck pace for the previous few years, going from UCLA to the AVP then back to UCLA straight into the Olympic race. A break could be just what she needed. It could be exactly what the team needed.

Kelley Larsen, Emily Stockman

U.S.A. rank: 4

Points: 6,080

It is positively bananas that the fourth-ranked U.S. team is also the seventh-ranked team on the planet. America is deep. When you’re as good as Stockman and Larsen are, and you’re behind in the race, time and more events are what you need, and time and hopefully more events is what they’ll get. If they have a dozen more events to climb the ladder and take the second American spot, as they could, depending when the FIVB reschedules its laundry list of postponed events, they could very well do so. Their win in Warsaw proved they can compete with any team in the world. They just need some more time to do so. Now, they might have that time.

Men

Taylor Crabb, Jake Gibb

U.S.A. rank: 1

Points: 6,680

It is hard to imagine how another year added to Gibb’s career would be a positive for these two, but it’s also hard to imagine how Gibb played some of his best volleyball at age 43 as he did in 2019. He, like Phil Dalhausser and John Hyden, have hoarded a gallon from the fountain of youth and just continue to defy athletic norms. For Crabb, it’s just another year to get better. With his trajectory the way it is – a sharp incline upwards – the postponement isn’t going to do any harm. Perhaps this will be a useful rest period for Gibb, a bit of a sabbatical before one final charge in 2021.

Tri Bourne, Trevor Crabb

U.S.A. rank: 2

Points: 6,360

Like Sponcil and Claes, and Larsen and Stockman, this is another team where it’s almost only upside. They held a slim lead over Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena for the second spot, slim enough where it was basically a tie. But now Bourne and Crabb have another year to dial in their team dynamic, which both admit they’re only just beginning to figure out. Bourne can dial in his world-class blocking again, while both can dig into the nuances of defense and different roles in transition. It’s inconvenient for anyone to have to wait another year, but as this is this only team where age is not a factor at all, there isn’t much downside to the postponement for Bourne and Crabb.

Phil Dalhausser, Nick Lucena

U.S.A. rank: 3

Points: 5,840

It is impossible to say how this will impact Dalhausser and Lucena. Dalhausser has readily admitted that Tokyo was it for him. Then it was onto family time and working at his new facility in Orlando, Fla. This news obviously pushes that timeline back. Like Walsh Jennings, though, it could just mean more time at home with their families for what could be the remainder of the year. They live close enough to one another that practicing won’t be a burden. If there isn’t another meaningful event until, say, August, maybe later, that’s another five months at home they otherwise wouldn’t have had. It could be exactly what they need, or it could be difficult to sustain the motivation needed to make an Olympic push for another year and a half.

Time will only tell. And time is exactly what we have in abundance.

Episoder(500)

SANDCAST No. 5: A glimpse into greatness with April Ross, Part 1

SANDCAST No. 5: A glimpse into greatness with April Ross, Part 1

There has only ever seemed to be one gear for April Ross: Go. Such is how the Newport Beach native has garnered a laundry list of accomplishments that include, among others: A Gatorade National Player of the Year award at Newport Harbor High School; two national championships at USC (where she never even planned on playing, but more on that in Part 2); a two-year stretch with partner Jen Kessey between 2008-2010 in which she medaled in 17 of 20 FIVB events; an undefeated AVP season in 2014 with Kerri Walsh-Jennings; two Olympics medals, one silver, one bronze. And every time Ross thinks it’s time to unwind, to relax – well, there’s always another mountain to climb. “It’s so hard. It’s so hard. What I find happens is I convince myself to find that balance a little bit and not stress about it and not work so hard,” she said. “And then I’ll go to a competition, underperform, and I’m like ‘F this! I’m going to home, step it up. I’m not training hard enough, not focused hard enough. If you just want to win that bad – it’s so hard to take a step back and find that balance.” This season was, as Ross describes it on SANDCAST, full of “hiccups.” A last-minute breakup with Walsh-Jennings, with whom Ross won a bronze medal in the 2016 Olympic Games, along with a toe injury that had more of an effect that she realized until she watched video of her approach, made for a mercurial year, though certainly not a bad one – not by most standards, anyway. Ross still won a pair of AVP tournaments, in Austin split-blocking with Whitney Pavlik, and in New York defending for Lauren Fendrick. She still made the World Championship finals in Vienna, pushing the 2016 Olympic gold medalists Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst to three sets. But one of those hiccups – having a constantly-changing partner situation – is resolved for 2018. In Alix Klineman, the 2017 AVP Rookie of the Year, Ross has partner stability once more. “It was really hard to figure out what to do,” Ross said. “There weren’t many chances to compete and to try people out. It came down to really intangible things. I decided to go with Alix Klineman to take a shot at Tokyo.”

29 Nov 201750min

SANDCAST No. 4: Welcome to the United States, Chaim Schalk

SANDCAST No. 4: Welcome to the United States, Chaim Schalk

Chaim Schalk had been to the United States before. The Alberta native has actually been an American citizen his entire life -- his mother is an Iowan -- but as a kid raised in Red Deer, Schalk has been competing in the Canadian pipeline his entire life.  Until now.  After the 2017 season, Schalk, who finished fifth at the 2017 Beach Volleyball World Championships with longtime partner Ben Saxton, the 6-foot-5 defender made the decision to transfer to compete for the United States, homeland of his wife, Lane Carico, another top-flight U.S. defender whom he married on New Years Eve of 2015. “It was probably halfway through the season when I considered what my options were going to be,” Schalk said. “Me and Ben, we weren’t, I don’t think, were on the same page after a certain period of time. We had a really good run over five years but I was hoping we were going to become more consistent and we never actually won a tournament, and every team around our level has won a tournament. Every team. And that was one thing I wanted to do: I wanted to win. “We’d get into these tournaments where we were so close and every time, something happened. Not to say that’s the reason why I wanted to move on, because if it’s not Ben, who am I going to win with?” And that remains the No. 1 question for Schalk moving forward: Who will the erstwhile Canadian partner with? Because of an FIVB transfer rule, Schalk will have to sit out of FIVB tournaments until October of 2019. He’ll be an exclusively AVP talent, though it's possible he could compete in the World Series of Beach Volleyball, should it not fall under the FIVB umbrella, as it did not this past season. He hasn’t decided on anything; he hasn’t ruled anything out. It’s just as possible he plays with Brazilian blocker Ricardo Santos, with whom he played in AVP New York and stunned Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena in the first round, as with a young and developing blocker. For now, Schalk is rehabbing his pinky finger post-surgery, though the next time he steps on the sand, it’ll be as a member of USA Volleyball. WATCH: SANDCAST host Tri Bourne plays against SANDCAST guest Chaim Schalk in the Toronto semifinals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8BHlrar2wc&t=934s Where to find Chaim Schalk: Twitter: @chaimschalk  Instagram: @Chaimer Website: ChaimSchalk.com

25 Nov 20171h 18min

SANDCAST No. 3: It's finally (finally) video game season for Kelly Claes

SANDCAST No. 3: It's finally (finally) video game season for Kelly Claes

In a frenetic span of 120 days, Kelly Claes was able to accomplish what the vast majority of the beach volleyball world would be satisfied with in a career.  She won a national championship with USC, which was preceded by the USAV Collegiate Beach Championships. She stunned 2016 Olympic gold medalists Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst to claim a bronze medal in the World Series of Beach Volleyball. She won an AVP during the season finale in Chicago, which came with the added bonus of boosted prize money, money she was alas able to accept. She even won a NORCECA qualifier – playing defense with Lauren Fendrick. And Claes isn’t done yet. Not even close.  “I want to be the best blocker in the world,” she says repeatedly throughout the podcast. She’s not far off, despite playing professionally for less than one full season (she had to skip the AVP’s opener in Huntington Beach). While her and partner Sara Hughes, the FIVB Rookie of the Year, finished the collegiate season No. 1 in the country and national champs for the fourth straight season, they also finished No. 16 internationally and sixth on the AVP.  On the podcast, Claes discusses her remarkable partnership with Hughes, which includes a record 103-match winning streak, and what she learned by playing with Fendrick and AVP MVP April Ross in an FIVB in China. “You can only learn so much from one person,” she says. “I feel like reaching into another hat is always helpful. I feel like I learned from both of them and I wouldn’t trade that for anything. It was a really cool experience.” With a little less than three months to go before the opening event of the 2018 season, in The Hague, Claes and Hughes are back on the sand. Claes discusses what her training looks like, what events she’s looking forward to in the 2018 season, her aspirations both immediate and long term, and how she plans on developing into the best blocker in the world. Where you can find Claes: Twitter: @kellyclaes3 Instagram: Kellyclaes3 Facebook: Kelly Claes Of course, this podcast would not be possible without our generous sponsors from Marriott Vacation Club Rentals, which offer the best vacation accommodations in the world’s best vacation destinations. Wherever you travel… Florida to Hawaii, Europe to California, choose to rest in our luxurious guest rooms, suites or villas for your next getaway. Villas offer all of the comforts of home including a full kitchen, living and dining area and separate bedrooms. Stay with the Marriott name you know and trust.    Book Big Spaces in Great Places today.  Visit www.MVCRentals.com!

15 Nov 20171h 2min

SANDCAST No. 2: Ryan Doherty, the Most Interesting Man in Beach Volleyball

SANDCAST No. 2: Ryan Doherty, the Most Interesting Man in Beach Volleyball

Dos Equis had it all wrong when the beer company casted actor Jonathan Goldsmith as its "Most Interesting Man in the World" campaign.  It missed out on Ryan Doherty.  Even amongst a group of peers with circuitous routes into beach volleyball, Doherty’s path has been exceptionally itinerant. A star pitcher out of the baseball-mad town of Toms River, New Jersey, Doherty threw for Notre Dame in college. He left early, going undrafted but getting scooped up by the Arizona Diamondbacks, where he spent two years in the minor leagues, years filled with long bus rides, pitching well, pitching not so well – until he got the call from the manager’s office. Doherty was cut. It was, as rock bottom moments can often be, a watershed moment for Doherty, as serendipitous as it was crushing. After couch surfing for a bit in South Carolina, where he was routinely beaten down in beach volleyball by high schoolers, Doherty had made up his mind: He was moving to California, and he was going to play professional beach volleyball. Since, the 7-foot-1 – well, 7-foot-and-a-half – blocker has partnered with Olympians Casey Patterson, Nick Lucena, Todd Rogers and John Hyden. He has beaten Phil Dalhausser. He has represented the United States internationally and domestically, becoming a mainstay on both the AVP and FIVB Tours. Doherty discusses all of that and a great deal more on SANDCAST: Beach Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. Mentioned in the show: Doherty wrote a book, Avatar’s Guide to Beach Volleyball. You can get that on Amazon here: Where you can find Doherty: Twitter: @RyanDVolley Facebook: Ryan Doherty As always, this show would not be possible without the sponsorship of Marriott Vacation Club Rentals, who offers the best vacation accommodations in the world’s best vacation destinations.  Wherever you travel… Florida to Hawaii, Europe to California, choose to rest in our luxurious guest rooms, suites or villas for your next getaway.   Villas offer all of the comforts of home including a full kitchen, living and dining area and separate bedrooms.   Stay with the Marriott name you know and trust.   Book Big Spaces in Great Places today.  Visit www.MVCRentals.com!

8 Nov 20171h 3min

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