Sand is swapped for snow in Sochi

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Ahmed Tijan, Júlio Nascimento, Alexander Likholetov, Artyom Khabibulin and Alexey Verbov at 2,320 meters (7,612 feet) at the highest point of the "Rosa Khutor" ski resort in Sochi. (7,612 feet). Photo credit: FIVB

It’s beach volleyball but not as you know it.

Simply just replace sand with snow and away you go.

Welcome to the wonderful world of snow volleyball!

Don’t worry we are not suffering from brain freeze or getting cold feet – last week four teams who competed in the qualification stages for the Sochi Open wrote their names into the record books after competing in a mini-tournament 2,320 meters (7,612 ft) above sea level.

We already know how much weather can influence the game but we’re pretty confident our favorite beach volleyball stars can acclimatize to the elements – something they will need to do in July when the Swatch Major Series rocks up 1,000 meters above sea level in Gstaad.

The concept of snow volleyball is nothing new of course – the first adventure into digging and diving on the cold, white, icy stuff came back in Austria in 2008 – and the sport earned official status from the European Volleyball Confederation in October last year.

Although we’re busy preparing for a summer of sizzling weather on the sand, snow volleyball does seem a little bit difficult for us to get our heads around. But one thing’s for sure – it’ll be a winner in winter.

“As is the same as in beach volleyball this new kind of sport is accompanied by music, cheerleaders dances and other elements of the show,” said the tournament director of FIVB Sochi Open and the general director of All-Russian beach sports Association, Ilya Volodars.

Of course beach volleyball will always be number one in the Swatch Major Series office but if there’s a sport to rival our great game then it’s got to be snow volleyball…

“Snow Volleyball is a great sport, which undoubtedly has a future in Russia,” said special guest and referee-for-the-day Alexey Verbov. “After all, with the snow in our country we never had any problems. With the sand sometimes yes, but the snow - definitely not. I can see this sport in the program of Winter Olympic Games in the future.”

Freezing cold but still smiling! Ophélie Lusson, Aline Chamereau, Elizaveta Zaychonkovskaya, Daria Rudykh and Alexey Verbov at 2,320 meters (7,612 feet). Photo credit: FIVB

In the all-important games on the snow there was a home victory for Russia’s Alexander Likholetov and Artem Khabibulin against Qatar’s Julio Cesar and Ahmed Tijan. In the women’s clash France’s Aline Chamereau and Ophélie Lusson, beat Russians Darya Rudykh and Elizaveta Zayonchkovskaya.

So once our spectacular summer of sport on the sand comes to an end in September we know we’re heading for the winter! We’ll be packing our thermals and woolly hats, holding a Mikasa and heading for the mountains.