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ne issue with performing as well as our USA Volleyball teams did at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games is that it makes for a tough encore. Granted, that’s a nice issue to deal with and beats the alternative by a mile. But it certainly means that the expectations of our Olympic athletes will be extremely high for next summer’s Games in London, where we will do everything in our power to recreate the run in Bei- jing that included gold medals from the U.S. Men’s National Team and both of our top beach teams (Kerri Walsh/Misty May-Treanor and Todd Rogers/Phil Dalhausser), the silver medal from the U.S. Women’s National Team and the U.S. Women’s Sitting Team. Can we equal or top that in London? Well, the Beijing results were, quite simply, the best across-the-board showing ever for any country in volleyball, so raising that bar isn’t going to be easy. But I can say this with full confi dence: Every indication is that we will once again be very, very good in all disciplines at the Olympics, and it’s going to be exciting to follow our teams as they mix it up on the world’s biggest sporting stage. In 2011, we’ve had quite a year at the highest levels of competition. Our U.S. Women’s team, which is ranked second in the world behind Brazil and has a nice blend of experienced veterans and young talent, is coming off a terrifi c summer and early fall. In August, the women again won the gold medal at the FIVB World Grand Prix, and followed that up in September at the NORCECA Women’s Continental Championship with another gold. That qualifi ed them for the FIVB World Cup (Nov. 4-18 in Japan). A top-three fi nish there will earn them a berth in the Olympics. Our U.S. Men are also showing a lot of promise. Currently ranked third in the world behind No. 1 Brazil and No. 2 Russia, the men are coming off a silver-medal fi nish at the NORCECA Men’s Continental Championship, which qualifi ed them for the FIVB World Cup (Nov. 20 through Dec. 4 in Japan). Same as the women, they will earn a ticket to London with a top-three fi nish. On the beach, we remain neck-and-neck with Brazil at the top of the world in the Olympic
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qualifi cation ranking. Two of our women’s teams are ranked in the top fi ve – No. 2 May-Treanor and Walsh and No. 5 Jennifer Kessy and April Ross – and our third American women’s team of Lauren Fendrick and Brooke Hanson is coming on strong, currently ranked No. 8. Not surprisingly, the men’s beach teams are led by Rogers and Dalhausser, who fi nished the
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2011 season with a No. 1 Olympic qualifi cation ranking after winning four titles and earning 10 podium fi nishes in 12 tournaments. Had they not run up against injuries – Dalhausser with a badly sprained ankle, Rogers with a knee problem – you can bet they would have done even better. The teams I’ve mentioned are the ones that get the most publicity, but there are a lot of oth- ers that are doing big things at the highest level of their disciplines. One great example is the U.S. Women’s Sitting Team, which won a gold medal at the ECVD Continental Cup in September by go- ing undefeated and dominating the European competition. What is probably most exciting to me is the fact that we are building such a strong foundation for continued excellence. Over the summer, our boys’ and girls’ junior national teams reached their highest fi nishes ever – fourth place – at their respective FIVB Junior World Championships. With the ongoing expansion of our High Performance programs both indoors and on the beach and the addition of women’s sand volleyball as an NCAA emerging sport, there’s every reason to believe that the many triumphs of our athletes, impressive as they have been, are only a beginning.
Doug Beal
PHOTO:FIVB
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