2016-03-08 10:50:00 CEST
Today marks the first serve on the Rio Center Court
The 8 March 2016 is an iconic day in Rio de Janeiro as the FIVB World Tour first Grand Slam of the season commences and with a forecast of a cloudy but comfortable 26 degrees, the players had better bring the sunshine and their game faces.
The whopping $800 000 prize money tournament brings a total of 32 world-class, ambitious, international teams to compete to take home gold and of course, to gather up the all-important Olympic qualifying points. All the action will be taking place on the Center and Side Courts at picturesque Copacabana beach. For a detailed list of who’s competing: Men | Women
Aleksandrs Samoilovs diving at the Gstaad Major 2015 Photo Credit: Samo Vidic
Same city, same beach – this event can be seen as a real-life, dry-run for the 28th Summer Olympic Games 2016 which are scheduled to take place from 5-21 August (beach volleyball taking place from 6-18 August) at the spectacular Copacabana beach.
Athletes have just a few tournaments that they may enter in an attempt to collect enough points to qualify, to represent their countries in Beach Volleyball at the Olympics. As the Olympics are only held every four years, and the sport is a relative new addition to the games, this is an opportunity that the players will not take lightly and you best believe that every team is gunning for one of the last 15 out of a total 24 spots.
On Our Watch list
New-comers to gold status, the hottest female team at the moment: Eduarda “Duda” Lisboa and Elize Maia shocked the world as they graced the podium winning gold at the Maceio Open in February and not forgetting Emanuel Rego, who will play his last tournament before he retires from his professional sporting career and finally - Pedro Solberg, who comes from Brazilian beach volleyball royalty – a family of beach volleyball stars, plus he will have the at-home advantage – he will certainly not disappoint…