2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games

Olympic Beach Volleyball Is Only 100 Days Away

Olympic Beach Volleyball Is Only 100 Days Away

With 100 days until the Rio Olympics, U.S. beach volleyball players are still fighting to qualify.

Apr 27, 2016 by Megan Kaplon
Olympic Beach Volleyball Is Only 100 Days Away
The 2016 Olympic Games are 100 days away, but there are only 45 days until June 12, the end of the Olympic Qualification Period. It’s that date that Team USA’s beach volleyball players have been focused on for the entire Rio quad.

Casey Patterson and Jake Gibb can feel pretty confident that they’ll be included in the elite group of 48 duos competing on Copacabana Beach in Rio. Patterson and Gibb rank fifth in the FIVB’s provisional Olympic standings with 5,120 total points, and they’re the No. 2 seed in this week’s Fortaleza Open, where they’re 1-0 in pool play after a victory over Thiago Santos Barbosa and Harley Marques Silva.

But the battle for the No. 2 Team USA spot is fierce. Nick Lucena and Phil Dalhausser rank seventh in the provisional Olympic rankings after claiming gold medals in two Open tournaments and finishing a very respectable fifth in last month’s Rio Grand Slam. This relatively new duo chose to sit out the Fortaleza tournament, but they are staying busy, and appeared this morning on NBC’s Today Show.

John Hyden and Tri Bourne stand 15th in the rankings, but a silver-medal finish in the Xiamen Open earlier this month means they are certainly not out of contention. It will depend on how they perform in the upcoming FIVB Opens in Sochi, Antalya and Cincinnati, and the ever-important last two grand slams before the end of the qualification period: Moscow (May 24-29) and Hamburg (June 7-12).



On the women’s side, Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross seem to be a lock for Rio despite Walsh Jennings’ struggle with shoulder injuries last summer. The duo medaled in all four FIVB tournaments they competed in this year, including their 2016 debut at the Rio Grand Slam, where they took gold. Although they still need to compete in two more FIVB tournaments to reach the eligibility requirement of 12 total competitions as a pair, they should easily meet that and hold their No. 6 ranking (or climb higher).

Of the other top American women’s duos, only Lauren Fendrick and Brooke Sweat, who rank 15th, currently hold a position in the top 17, which is where teams need to be to qualify outright for the Olympics. Fendrick and Sweat’s closest competitors, Jen Kessy and Emily Day, are seven spots and 430 points behind at 21.

Three other American women’s duos have competed consistently on the FIVB tour; however, it seems unlikely that any team outside the previously mentioned three have a chance of making it into the top 17 by the June 12 deadline. Lane Carico and Summer Ross rank 37th, Kim DiCello and Kendra VanZwieten 49th, and Brittany Hochevar and Jen Fopma 67th. These three teams, as well as Irene Hester and Caitlin Ledoux, and Emily Stockman and Amanda Dowdy, are competing in this week’s Fortaleza Open in Brazil.

If Fendrick/Sweat drop out of the top 17 and Kessy/Day or one of the other American women’s duos don't rise into that range, the U.S. could still earn a second berth through the NORCECA Continental Cup in Mexico (June 20-27) or through a last-chance world qualifier in Sochi (July 4-10).