PARIS (AP) — On the Champ de Mars, where the first mayor of Paris was sent to the guillotine during the Reign of Terror, the American beach volleyball squad got cut in half.
Two U.S. teams fell on the sand at Eiffel Tower Stadium on Monday, with Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss losing to Canada in the women’s round of 16 a few hours after Chase Budinger and Miles Evans lost to Norway in the men’s.
Only Miles Partain and Andy Benesh advanced on the day, joining Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes in the elite eight.
“Definitely a little heartbroken,” said Nuss, who along with her former LSU teammate formed the No. 2 team in the world rankings. “We came in wanting to bring home gold back to the United States. That’s been our goal for the past four years. So to go out in the round of 16 is obviously an earlier exit than we would have liked.”
Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes beat Nuss and Kloth 21-19, 21-18, leaving the country that has won four of the last five women’s gold medals with just one team in the bracket.
Wilkerson isn’t just a giant killer in Olympic beach volleyball: She’s an American giant killer. She also eliminated the U.S. pair of Cheng and Sarah Sponcil in the first round of the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games.
“That’s what she’s good at doing,” Humana-Paredes said with a laugh.
“But honestly,” Wilkerson said, “they’re an amazing team. And it’s a whole new tournament. It’s a whole new Games, whole new atmosphere. We’re all different skill levels from what I was even, four years ago.
“We knew we were going to play this team at some point. They’re one of the best teams in the world. We thought it would be later in the tournament, because we both deserve to have a shot at those medals. But when we’re put in this situation, we were ready to respond.”
In other men’s matches on Monday, Qatar beat Chile in straight sets, setting up a quarterfinal matchup with Partain and Benesh. Spain beat Poland, keeping six-time Olympian Pablo Herrera alive in his quest for his first medal since he won silver in Athens, 20 years ago.
On the women’s side, Latvia beat Germany, Spain beat the Netherlands and Brazil beat Japan.
Budinger, a former NBA player, and Evans lost in straight sets to Norway, the defending Olympic champions, on Monday afternoon. To start off the night session, first-time Olympians Benesh and Partain knocked out four-time Olympian Paolo Nicolai and his partner, Samuele Cottafava, 21-19, 21-18.
“I am very in awe of how long they’ve been playing at such a high level. It’s definitely difficult to keep pushing your body after you’re at such a level of excellence. So I’m really inspired by those guys,” said Partain, who at 22 is the youngest person ever to represent the United States in Olympic beach volleyball.
“It’s cool that beach volleyball is a lifelong sport that you can play at a really high level till how old they are — and even past,” he said. “So I’m really glad to be a part of the sport that can do that encourages that and it’s part of its, kind of aura.”
Already at Paris, five-time Olympian and Rio de Janeiro gold medalist Laura Ludwig of Germany has been eliminated, and the 42-year-old Herrera has said he will retire.
The defending men’s gold medalists from Norway are 27 and 28 and the top-ranked team from Sweden features a pair of 22-year-olds.
Nicolai said he hasn’t made a decision on whether to go for a fifth Olympics. He would be 40 for Los Angeles in 2028.
“I’m 36, and I have to be sure that if I started a new Olympic journey, that I’m ready to do it,” he said. “Because I know how difficult it is to be focused for four more years.”
So, is it a young person’s sport?
“I hope so, because that means that we have a great future,” Nicolai said. “The Norwegians, Swedish, they are the top two in the rankings. And they are really young. So that’s great because they are full of energy. And so maybe after this tournament we can do something more for our sport because we deserve it.”
“In all the two weeks, the crowd was always full and always crazy for the beach volleyball,” he said. “That’s the moment for us, for our sport to grow.”
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This story has been updated to correct that the U.S. teams lost in the round of 16, not the quarterfinals. And Miles Partain, not Miles Evans, advanced.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
