It all went down just like that. The announcement from the Brazilian Volleyball Federation that the country’s Olympic teams at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be Ágatha Bednarczuk/Duda Lisboa and Ana Patrícia Ramos/Rebecca Cavalcanti triggered one of those series of partnership changes that we only see in Brazil. And it involved all of the non-Olympian top women’s teams in the nation.
Carol Salgado and Maria Elisa Antonelli were the first to part ways, still in 2019. Within the first week of 2020, though, the domino effect continued with all of Bárbara Seixas/Fernanda Berti, Talita Antunes/Taiana Lima and Carol Horta/Angela Lavalle ending their unions.
After a few days of speculation, the new teams were all revealed – Carol and Talita will join forces, Fernanda and Taiana will be partners again and Bárbara and Carol Horta will share the same side of the court. Antonelli had already partnered with Elize Maia Secomandi at the end of last year.
Of all three partnerships, the one of Talita and Carol is arguably the most intriguing. With both veterans spending most of their careers as blockers, it’s expected that Carol switches back to defense. The sister of Pedro Solberg should also move from the left, where she played with Antonelli, to the right to accommodate her new partner.
Fernanda and Taiana will be together for the second time in their careers as they were one of the top Brazilians teams between 2014 and 2015. In the occasion, they took the silver medal at the 2015 World Championship and won four medals (one gold, two silver and one bronze) in 16 international events as a team.
Rio 2016 Olympic silver medalist Bárbara will try to climb the rankings with new partner Carol Horta. The 27-year-old blocker has showed promising progress after each of the last seasons and the silver medal she won at the 2018 Fort Lauderdale Major with Taiana, when they played ten matches from the country-quota to the final, indicated she’s ready for the big stage.
Brazilian Olympic teams are all set, but it should be a fun season even for the duos that aren’t going to Tokyo anyways, shouldn’t it?
