Beach volleyball will be on full display in Paris, with the Olympic women’s and men’s tournaments taking place from July 27 to Aug. 10 at a temporary stadium at the base of the Eiffel Tower.
Paris est un terrain de jeu et la tour Eiffel en est l’actrice principale sur le terrain de beach-volley 🏐
Venez assister à une épreuve des Jeux Olympiques devant la vue la plus iconique de Paris ✨ pic.twitter.com/FWkr2Ezjeu
— Paris 2024 (@Paris2024) July 12, 2024
The United States is the only country to medal in beach volleyball in every edition of the Olympics since the sport was officially added to the Summer Games in 1996.
Defending gold medalists Alix Klineman and April Ross, who won the women’s event at the 2020 Tokyo Games, are not competing in the Paris Olympics. They both became mothers last year, and though they returned to AVP competition in May, they did not have enough international events left to qualify for the 2024 Games.
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The U.S. men are seeking their first medal in beach volleyball since Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers won gold at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Who’s on Team USA
The U.S. qualified two teams (the maximum allowed) on both the men’s and women’s sides.
For the women, the No. 2-ranked duo of Taryn Kloth, 27, and Kristen Nuss, 26, were the first U.S. beach volleyball pair to earn a bid to the Paris Games, clinching a spot in March. The two have partnered up since 2021 at LSU, where they went 36-0 in their sole collegiate season together before turning pro. Their 10-inch height difference (Kloth is 6 feet 4 and Nuss is 5 feet 6) is the largest for a U.S. Olympic beach volleyball team, per NBC Sports. Paris will mark the first Olympics for both players.
Kelly Cheng (nee Claes), 28, and Sara Hughes, 29, are the other U.S. women’s duo (ranked No. 3) and are viewed as likely gold medal contenders as the defending world champions. Cheng represented the U.S. at the 2020 Tokyo Games, where she and former partner Sarah Sponcil lost in the Round of 16. Hughes — making her Olympic debut this year — attempted to qualify for the Tokyo Games, but failed to do so after her former partner, Summer Ross, injured her back.
Cheng and Hughes are former USC beach volleyball stars who led the Trojans to back-to-back national titles in 2016 and 2017. After splitting up in 2018, they reunited as a pair in 2022. They won gold at the 2023 world championships in October, beating Kloth/Nuss 2-1 in the semifinal and current top-ranked pair Ana Patricia and Duda of Brazil 2-0 in the final.
Eiffel Tower, here they come! 🏖️ 🏐
The qualification period has ended and USA Volleyball is confirming the four teams that will comprise the U.S. Olympic Beach Volleyball Team for Paris 2024!
Details at https://t.co/LOJ1KG90tK#ParisOlympics #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/61fHsYSWZK
— USA Volleyball (@usavolleyball) June 10, 2024
For the men’s event, Andy Benesh and Miles Partain (ranked No. 6) clinched their Olympic spot in May. Benesh, 29, and Partain, 22, are the youngest U.S. men’s beach volleyball pair in Olympic history, according to NBC Sports. They finished third at the Elite16 in Ostrava, Czech Republic, on the FIVB Tour in June, defeating Norwegians Anders Mol and Christian Sørum 2-0 in the bronze medal match. Mol and Sørum won gold at the 2020 Tokyo Games and sit at No. 2 in the Olympic rankings behind Sweden’s David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig.
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The other U.S. men’s spot went to Chase Budinger and Miles Evans (ranked No. 13), who clinched the final bid in June. Budinger — a 6-foot-7 former NBA player — teamed up with Evans last year, and they quickly moved up the rankings. Budinger, 36, retired from basketball in 2017 after seven seasons in the NBA and a year in a Spanish pro league. He debuted on the AVP tour in 2018 and will become the first athlete to play Olympic beach volleyball and an NBA regular-season game, according to NBC Sports. Evans, 34, will also be making his Olympic debut in Paris.
Schedule (times ET)
Preliminary round
July 27: 8-10 a.m.; noon-2 p.m.; 4-6 p.m.
July 28-Aug. 2: 3-7 a.m.; 9 a.m.-noon; 2-5 p.m.
Aug. 3: 3-7 a.m.; 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Lucky loser round
Aug. 3: 10 a.m.-1 p.m.; 3-6 p.m.
Round of 16
Aug. 4-5: 3-5 a.m.; 7-9 a.m.; 11 a.m.-1 p.m.; 3-5 p.m.
Quarterfinals
Aug. 6-7: 11 a.m.-1 p.m.; 3-5 p.m.
Semifinals
Aug. 8: 11 a.m.-1 p.m.; 3-5 p.m.
Medal matches
Aug. 9 (women’s): 3-6 p.m.
Aug. 10 (men’s): 3-6 p.m.
U.S. teams’ preliminary-round schedule
Partain/Benesh
July 27: 8 a.m., vs. Diaz/Alayo (Cuba)
July 30: 9 a.m., vs. Abicha/El Graoui (Morocco)
Aug. 1: 9 a.m., vs. George/André (Brazil)
Nuss/Kloth
July 27: 4 p.m., vs. Bansley/Bukovec (Canada)
July 29: 4 p.m., vs. Mariafe/Clancy (Australia)
Aug. 1: 4 p.m., vs. Xue/Xia (China)
Hughes/Cheng
July 28: 4 p.m., vs. Hermannová/Štochlová (Czechia)
July 31: 9 a.m., vs. Vieira/Chamereau (France)
Aug. 2: 4 p.m., vs. Müller/Tillmann (Germany)
Evans-Budinger
July 29: 10 a.m., vs. Krou/Gauthier-Rat (France)
July 30: 2 p.m., vs. Boermans/De Groot (Netherlands)
Aug. 2: 9 a.m., vs. Herrera/Gavira (Spain)
How to watch
TV: NBC, USA Network, CNBC and E!
Streaming: Peaco*ck, NBCOlympics.com, NBC.com, NBC app and NBC Olympics app
Check here for full, day-by-day TV and streaming info.
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Key storylines
The U.S. holds the most Olympic gold medals in beach volleyball with seven, and Brazil has the second most with three and the most Olympic medals overall in the sport with 13 (the U.S. has 11). The countries are tied for the most Olympic medals in women’s beach volleyball with seven each, but the U.S. women have four golds compared with Brazil’s one. For the men, Brazil leads the Olympic medal count with six (the U.S. has four), and the U.S. has the most golds with three.
Like the Americans, both of Brazil’s women’s teams are in the top five in the Olympic ranking heading into the event, with Brazilians Bárbara Seixas and Carol Solberg Salgado at No. 5 behind Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson at No. 4 — all of which are strong duos with gold medal potential.
For the men, Åhman/Hellvig — relying on their iconic “Swedish Jump Set” — stormed to the top of the rankings, dethroning longtime former No. 1-ranked pair Mol/Sørum in April (Mol had surgery in March to repair a broken bone in his lower leg). Others atop the rankings are Germany’s Nils Ehlers/Clemens Wickler (No. 3), Brazil’s André Stein/George Wanderley (No. 4) and Czechia’s Ondřej Perušič/David Schweiner (No. 5).
More reading
- Sara Hughes, rising U.S. beach volleyball star, has the Paris Olympics in sight
- Ex-NBA player Chase Budinger secures Paris Olympics bid for beach volleyball
(Photo of Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes: Jaime Anzurez / AFP via Getty Images)
Alex Andrejev is a staff editor on the news team. Before joining The Athletic, she covered NASCAR and Charlotte FC for The Charlotte Observer and was a reporting intern on the sports desk for The Washington Post. She grew up near Washington, D.C.
