Vikings out to make history again in Vienna

It can be difficult for athletes to find motivation to compete at their highest level right after winning the most coveted prize of international sport, an Olympic gold medal, but Norwegians Anders Mol and Christian Sørum won’t have that problem this week at the A1 CEV EuroBeachVolley Vienna 2021 presented by Swatch.

As most of the top athletes in the world, the Beach Volley Vikings are moved by the challenge of doing what has never been done before and they will have that exact opportunity when they debut in the tournament played in the Austrian capital on Thursday, just six days after they became the youngest beach volleyball players to take gold at the Olympics.

After winning the last three editions of the EuroBeachVolley, the Norwegians will enter the event in Vienna positioned to become the first team in the 29-year history of the tournament to win it four times in a row. If they take gold at the Heumarkt, Mol and Sørum will join the select group of four-time European champions, which has only Germans and fellow Olympic champions Jonas Reckermann and Laura Ludwig so far.

“To win three in a row was already historic and extremely difficult for us to achieve,” Sorum said. “To be in a position in which we can take it even further is just unbelievable and that would perhaps be the most difficult achievement in our careers.”

If the Vikings are indeed to make history again, they couldn’t possibly do it anywhere also than Vienna. The Austrian capital has earned a soft spot in their hearts since 2018, when they starred the iconic photoshoot at the Riesenrad ahead of the 2018 Vienna Major.

Mol and Sørum have never lost a match together in Vienna on their journeys to win both the 2018 and the 2019 Vienna Majors, accumulating 12 consecutive victories in the Austrian capital.

“Vienna is our favorite place to compete,” Mol remarked. “We have so many special memories from Vienna and the nice and warm volleyball fans from Austria. Our photoshoot with Doppler and Horst on the Riesenrad was amazing, we still get goosebumps when we think about it. To get to play the EuroBeachVolley in Vienna after our victories in the Majors means a lot for us.”

The Norwegians are fresh from the biggest victory of their careers in Tokyo, but the memories of their three consecutive triumphs at the EuroBeachVolley are also right up there among their most meaningful moments in the sport.

“All three victories were really special, but the fist hits you differently,” Mol added. “Last year, in Jurmala, it was probably the hardest one, though. It was difficult to compete after such a long break because of the pandemic and we struggled with some injuries before the event, so we didn’t really expect we’d be able to play so well and win it.”

 

 

 

 

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Mol and Sørum are one of 12 men’s teams that were at the Tokyo Olympics and will compete this week in Vienna. Alongside them, also are Russians Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Viacheslav Krasilnikov, who took silver in Tokyo, and Latvians Martins Plavins and Edgars Tocs, who finished fourth.

“Playing in the EuroBeachVolley is really special and winning it has become more and more difficult,” Sørum reflected. “Most of the best teams in the world are from Europe so the competition level is extremely high.”