Information and photo courtesy of volleyball.org.au
Olympic silver medallists Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar, along with Olympic debutants Thomas Hodges and Zachery Schubert, were announced on Friday to the Australian Olympic Team for Paris 2024 at Adelaide Oval.
Taliqua and Mariafe will again join forces for the women’s beach volleyball event after their history-making performances in Tokyo.
This will mark both athletes third Olympic appearance, tying them for the second-most Olympic appearances in Australian beach volleyball history with Kerri Pottharst, Julien Prosser and Josh Slack, behind five-time Olympian Natalie Cook.
Thomas and Zachery will make their Olympic debut in the men’s beach volleyball in Paris, following a competitive qualification period.
Both pairs finished the ranking period in the top 17 to earn a Paris 2024 quota, with Schubert and Hodges ranked 16th and Clancy and Artacho 12th after an injury interrupted start to the year.
Today’s announcement brings the Australian Olympic Team size to 139 athletes of an expected 460 athletes to compete in Paris.
Australia has a chance to qualify a further men’s team to contest the Beach Volleyball tournament in Paris, through the AVC Beach Volleyball Continental Cup commencing in China next week.
Australian Olympic Team Deputy Chef de Mission and four-time Water Polo Olympian Bronwen Knox announced the team’s selection in Adelaide, which will host the 2025 Beach Volleyball World Championships.
“I am thrilled to announce Mariafe, Taliqua, Zachery, and Thomas to the Australian Team for Paris 2024,” said Ms Knox.
“Being named to your first Olympic Team is an incredible milestone, reflecting years of hard work and dedication. But being named to your third Olympic Team is a rare achievement and is a testament to Mariafe and Taliqua’s unwavering pursuit of excellence.
“I look forward to watching these athletes compete on the Olympic stage beneath the Eiffel Tower in just over 40 days’ time.
“Congratulations to each of the athletes, as well as the coaches, family, friends, supporters and Volleyball Australia who made this possible.”
Olympic silver medallist Mariafe Artacho Del Solar said she was grateful for the opportunity to represent Australia at her third Olympic Games.
“It’s an honour to play in my third Olympics, and I am proud of all the commitment and determination it has taken to get there,” the 30-year-old said.
“There’s a feeling of having already done it, but you still go to the Olympics wanting to win a medal. A gold medal is the goal, but I think an Olympic medal is always the dream and it’s probably an advantage for us that we’ve already experienced a finals at an Olympics.”
“Competing under the Eiffel Tower is going to be incredible. I think it’s going to be a very popular event so the stands are going to be packed and the atmosphere is going to be super vibrant, which always makes it more fun!”
Tom Hodges said he is looking forward to making his Olympic debut in Paris alongside teammate Zach Schubert.
“At the beginning it seemed like a daunting task, such a long journey ahead and it was almost overwhelming, but tournament by tournament we were able to collect the results and it’s super, super exciting to qualify through world ranking and get the job done,” Tom said.
“At this level in the sport, anyone can beat anyone on their given day so it does give a lot of optimism heading into the Olympics that we can play with those top teams and if we bring our best on that day we can take it to anyone.
“We have a couple lead-in tournaments in Europe over the next six weeks so it will all be about finding our rhythm, finding our groove so we can hit the Games in our best shape.
“I’m sure when we get to the Village itself it will all seem pretty surreal, but then it will be about locking back in and focusing on competing and playing well.”
Volleyball Australia CEO Andrew Dee celebrated Friday’s announcement.
“On behalf of Volleyball Australia I want to congratulate the first of our teams selected to the Australian Olympic Team for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
“Taliqua and Mariafe captivated Australia at the Tokyo Olympics when they won silver and we know they have their sights set on bettering that result in Paris as they prepare to compete at their third Olympic Games.
“Zach and Tom will make their Olympic debut in Paris, a life long dream for them both. Our newest pairing this Olympic cycle, both have traveled a long and different road to arrive at this day and we can’t wait to see what they do come Paris.
“We know for both of these teams today’s selection is not just about the work that has gone in the last three years, but numerous years with many sacrifices and plenty of highs and lows along the way. We celebrate the incredible achievement of both teams, as well as congratulate the team around the teams including our coaches and whole high performance team.
“We are pleased to announce both teams today who qualified through the world ranking qualifications. Next week we will have two men’s teams competing at the AVC Beach Volleyball Continental Cup in China looking to qualify an additional men’s quota, in the hope we’ll have two men’s teams in Paris.
“Beach Volleyball in Paris will be played under the Eiffel Tower and will undoubtedly have fans in the stands and right around the world captivated. Post Paris the next stop will be the 2025 Beach Volleyball World Championships that will be held in Adelaide, South Australia as part of the ‘green and gold runway’ building towards Brisbane 2032.”
The beach volleyball competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will be held from Saturday 27 July to Saturday 10 August at the Eiffel Tower Stadium in Paris.
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