WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL
LONDON OLYMPICS PREVIEW
Golden opportunity
With strong play during the last two years, the U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team has put itself in a good position to make a historic run at the Olympic gold
medal in London. by Don Patterson
he U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team enters this summer as the No. 1 ranked team in the world, so naturally that makes them a favorite – and probably the favorite – to win the gold medal at the Olympic Games. You might say they have a big target on their backs. What else is new? “As the USA team, we’ve always got a
T
target on our back,” U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team Coach Hugh McCutcheon says. “It doesn’t matter where we’re ranked, people always want to beat us.”
Something about seeing the red, white and blue on the other side of the net does seem to bring out the best in other teams, and play- ers from every era of USA Volleyball will tell you as much. And in London, where the U.S. Women will try to upgrade to gold after winning the silver four years ago in Beijing, the team will not only see some of the best of their opponents, they’ll face some of the best opponents – and early in the tournament, too. Of the two pools of six teams that will compete, the one the U.S. has landed in is clearly the tougher one. That isn’t so much because there aren’t tough teams in the other pool – there clearly are. It’s because there aren’t two teams in the U.S. pool like Algeria and Great Britain, which aren’t at the same level as the other 10. “You can take a little bit of a breath against
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MIDDLE MASHER: Foluke Akinradewo can launch off one foot or two and has been a force for the U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team. (Photo: FIVB)
those teams,” U.S. assistant coach Karch Kiraly says. “They just don’t play at the same level as these other teams.”
The U.S. pool consists of Brazil, ranked No. 2 behind the U.S. in the world order, China (No. 5), Serbia (No. 6), Turkey (No. 11) and Korea (No. 13). On the surface, there doesn’t appear to be such a huge gap between Algeria (No. 16 in the world rankings) and a team like Turkey, but it’s deceptive. Turkey is dangerous and can slug it out with almost
any opponent at the Olympics, and Korea is capable of giving tough opponents good matches, too. Algeria is not as strong. Ditto, Great Britain, which is the lowest ranked team in the tournament by a huge margin at 69th and earned its pass as the host country and top seed.
Of course, the positive to being plunged into a tough pool is this: if you survive – and, even better, if you can fi nish up near the top – your crossover match is likely to be easier.
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