How many times had Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler come so close they could taste it — only to leave parched and starved?
In four events in 2024 alone Germany had made a semifinal, yet only once had they returned home with a medal. The other three? The most agonizing finish in beach volleyball: fourth.
No medal.
No podium.
Just two bitter losses to swallow before the next tournament while the princes of the beach volleyball world, Sweden’s David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig, would be crowned once more.
On Thursday evening at the Paris Olympic Games, Ehlers and Wickler alas took the step forward they’d been positioning themselves to do for almost a full year, stunning Norway’s Anders Mol and Christian Sorum (21-13, 17-21, 15-13) to earn a berth into the gold medal match, where they will meet Sweden.
Ehlers and Wickler’s string of fourths this season is an apt comparison to how they’ve played Mol and Sorum prior to Thursday’s semifinal. Six times had they met, and six times had they lost. But the overall record belied how closely the two played one another. Half of them went the full three sets. Only once, at the 2022 European Championships, did Norway win both sets by more than two.
They were as close to even as two teams with such a lopsided head-on-head record could be.
Germany couldn’t have picked a better occasion to beat Norway, the Tokyo Olympics gold medalists, for the first time. In a rematch of the Vienna Elite16 semifinals just two weeks ago, it was played in a remarkably similar manner, Germany jumping out to a commanding first-set win (21-16 in Vienna, 21-13 in Paris), Norway recovering as they do (21-15 in Vienna, 21-17 in Paris), all culminating in a tense third set that could go either way.
On Thursday, thanks for magnificent play from Wickler, one of the best defenders of his generation, and consistency from Ehlers, Germany alas prevailed, 15-13, squeaking out the final point on a net violation on Mol in which his leg clipped the bottom of the net on a block that would have tied it at 14-14.
Germany challenged, and the replay showed Mol hitting the net, confirming an emotional win for Germany that left both Ehlers and Wickler on their hands and knees in disbelief.
Ehlers and Wickler are now guaranteed their first Olympic medals, the first for the German men since Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann won gold in London in 2012. What color it will be will be determined on Saturday, where they will play a most familiar foe in Ahman and Hellvig.
Sweden marches back from pool disappointment to gold medal match
David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig do not typically need three lives to make their way to a gold medal match in any beach volleyball tournament. They’d made 10 straight finals prior to the Paris Olympic Games and only two teams managed to take a win off of the Swedes in 31 times trying prior to Paris.
Yet in Paris, they needed all the lives the pool play format would allow for them. Twice they lost in the opening phase of this tournament, though it didn’t much matter. They responded, finding their legs and poise once more, with wins over Cuba and Brazil and, on Thursday, Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan (21-13, 21-17), who had been positively magnificent all the way to the semifinals.
It wasn’t that Qatar played significantly worse than they had in their 5-0 start to the Games, it’s just that Sweden alas played like Sweden.
Ahman was his usual brilliant self in the 21-13, 21-17 win, finishing with 14 kills to just a single error while tripling Ahmed’s digs (9 to 3). Hellvig, meanwhile, continues improving with every match. Shaky through pool play, Hellvig blocked five balls in the semifinal, more than doubling Cherif’s total. Offensively, he finished with 16 kills and hit just 6 errors, less than both Ahmed and Cherif.
Sweden has beaten Germany in 10 straight matches, including six in 2024 alone.
Saturday will mark the second time this season they will play for gold, the first coming at the Espinho Elite16, where they won, 21-16, 21-13.
Ana Patricia, Duda survive first real test of Paris Olympic Games
Through the first five matches, Brazil’s Ana Patricia Silva and Duda Lisboa, the world No. 1, hadn’t been tested. They’d won all 10 sets they played, and only once did a team draw within two points.
That changed on Thursday, when Australia’s Mariafe Artacho and Taliqua Clancy took the opening set, 22-20, off of Brazil.
It’s always intriguing, seeing how a team responds to its first dose of adversity. Brazil couldn’t have responded better, dominating the second, 21-15, and playing a squeaky clean third set to win, 15-12, in one of the highest-level sets of the entire Olympics on the women’s side.
Ana Patricia and Duda, who have long been stars in Brazil’s federation since they were kids cleaning up the youth World Championships, have now locked in Brazil’s first Olympic medal since 2016.
The color will be determined on Friday, when they play Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson.
Melissa Humana-Paredes, Brandie Wilkerson make history in Paris Olympics
Given the talent of the Canadian women these past three Olympic quads — Sarah Pavan, Heather Bansley, Brandie Wilkerson, Melissa Humana-Paredes, Sophie Bukovec — it is a surprise to most to learn that there hadn’t yet been an Olympic medal won. Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson changed that on Thursday when they halted the freight train that was Switzerland’s Nina Brunner and Tanja Huberli.
After winning the opening set, 21-14, Brunner and Huberli had a match point at 20-19. Brunner made an excellent dig in the angle, but an overset from Huberli was punished by Wilkerson, in a scene familiar to USA fans who witnessed the same during Canada’s upset over Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth.
Canada used its second life well, scoring the next two points before opening up a 4-1 lead in the third set.
But Switzerland responded, battling back to reclaim the lead at 10-9 on an intrepid over-on-one from Huberli into the deep corner in transition.
No matter.
Wilkerson, as is becoming habit in the Olympics, took over, blocking two in the third set, snuffing the Swiss comeback in a 15-12 three-set win.
Guaranteed a minimum of a silver medal, Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson will become the first Canadian women to stand on an Olympic podium. It isn’t the first time Humana-Paredes has made history, of course. She’s practically written the Canadian beach volleyball record book — first to win a World Championship, first to win a Commonwealth Games, first to be ranked No. 1 in the world, first of virtually everything.
On Friday, she will seek to be the first to win not just an Olympic medal, but a gold one.
