Lausanne, Switzerland, October 5, 2018 – Beach volleyball’s future champions will be given their first taste of an Olympic experience when they compete at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games.
The Argentina capital is hosting the third edition of the Youth Olympics, with the beach volleyball tournament due to take place at a temporary stadium in Green Park in the Palermo district from October 7-17.
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Sixty-four teams will compete - 32 teams per gender - and there is the strong possibility that the Russian team will have two YOG golds to celebrate in Buenos Aires.
Mariia Bocharova and Maria Voronina, and Denis Shekunov and Dmitrii Veretiuk won women’s and men’s gold at the Nanjing 2018 FIVB U19 Beach Volleyball World Championships.
However, they will be pushed hard by the teams they beat in the gold medal matches; the Netherlands Raisa Schoon and Emi van Driel, and Germany’s Lukas Pfretzschner and Filip John are sure to be aiming to go one better in Argentina.
The host nation’s hopes rest with Delfina Villar and Brenda Churin in the women’s competition and Bautista Amieva and Mauro Zelayeta in the men’s.
Four years ago beach volleyball made its Youth Olympic Games debut at Nanjing 2014 and since then two of the gold medallists have firmly made their mark on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.
Brazil’s Eduarda ‘Duda’ Santos Lisboa won women’s gold alongside Ana Patricia Silva Ramos. Four years on she topped the podium at the Hamburg 2018 FIVB World Tour Finals. She has also won two World Tour golds, three U19 Volleyball World Championships and two at U21 level.
Russia’s Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Artem Yarzutkin won men’s gold. They followed up by winning three World Tour medals, and the CEV U22 European Championships. In 2018 Stoyanovskiy teamed up with Igor Velichko and they ended the season with one World Tour gold, one silver and one bronze.
Buenos Aires follows Singapore 2010 and Nanjing 2014 in welcoming the cream of the world’s young athletes for the Youth Olympic Games.
Argentina has previously hosted a number of beach volleyball tournaments, with World Tour events taking place in Buenos Aires in 2005, Mar Del Plata in 1998, 1999 and 2000, Corrientes in 2013, and Parana in 2014.