Reigning EuroBeachVolley champions Joana Heidrich and Anouk Vergé-Dépré of Switzerland took European beach volleyball to the women’s podium of the Tokyo Olympics as they secured the bronze medal of the tournament in Japan on Friday.
Playing on the second Olympics (and the first as a team), the Swiss defeated fellow Europeans Tina Graudina and Anastasija Kravcenoka of Latvia in two sets (21-19, 21-15) in the bronze medal match. Later, Americans April Ross and Alix Klineman won gold with their straight-set (21-15, 21-16) victory over Australians Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho.
“It’s a huge honor to represent Switzerland and it’s a dream come true that we won this Olympic medal,” Vergé-Dépré commented. “What we experienced as a team here is one of those stories you can’t experience in other environments. You go through so many emotions, ups and downs, over five years now. We had a back surgery, we had corona, we had mental problems to motivate ourselves at the beginning of the pandemic... There was so much going on and I think overcoming this as a team will stay in our hearts.”
Their podium appearance confirmed the rise of European women in the international scene as for the second-straight edition of the Olympics the continent had a team in the top-three – Germany’s Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst won gold in Rio five years ago.
It was also the first Olympic medal won by a Swiss female team and just the second for the country in beach volleyball. Patrick Heuscher and Stefan Kobel also won bronze in Athens 2004.
“I couldn’t imagine winning this,” Heidrich added. “When I was a little kid, I saw Patrick and Stefan winning the medal and wanted to be here. That was my dream and now we made it. We gave a lot of energy the past five years. These three weeks were hard but we pushed ourselves. It’s amazing, it’s crazy.”
Right after the end of the Olympics, the top teams from the continent will head straight to Vienna for the A1 CEV EuroBeachVolley presented by Swatch, from August 11-15. The women will be the first to hit the sand in the Austrian capital, with pool play matches set to be played on Wednesday.
