Paris Olympics 2024: A postcard meant for her sister inspiring Mariafe Artacho del Solar’s dream of gold

Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy have become a beach volleyball force to be reckoned with heading to Paris, the former being driven by a postcard 24 years ago from two of Australia’s Olympic greats. Listen to the latest instalment of the En Route to Paris podcast here.

Australian Beach Volleyball player Mariafe Artacho del Solar in the rooftop pool at Crystalbrook Vincent at Howard Smith Wharves. Picture:Nigel Hallett

Mariafe Artacho del Solar’s dream of winning Olympic gold started as a little girl in Peru when her Sydney-based aunty turned up with a signed postcard from Sydney 2000 beach volleyball gold medallists Natalie Cook and Kerrie Pottharst.

The postcard with a special message was meant for her volleyball-playing older sister.

Instead it ignited a fire inside the Peruvian-born Artacho del Solar before she migrated to Australia at the age of 11.

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“My aunty was part of the breakfast that happened after the day they (Cook and Pottharst) won gold,” Artacho del Solar told the En Route to Paris podcast.

“At the time, because my sister was the one playing volleyball, my aunty got Nat and Kerrie to write on the postcard, ‘Always chase your dream. Go for gold.’

“And so then my aunty has taken this postcard to Peru and given it to my sister and I’m like, Can I have a look?’

“There was a picture on the front of Nat and Kerrie with a gold medal, smiling and looking stoked.

“I was like, ‘I really want that feeling. I want to experience that. I want to go to the Olympics and I want to win a medal.’

“That’s really when I understood the Olympics and I wanted to live that, I wanted to go through that … and funny enough, I was the one who moved to Australia.”

After leaving Peru to join her older brother on the Northern Beaches of Sydney in the summer of 2004, Artacho del Solar was introduced to beach volleyball and quickly started to excel through the junior ranks.

Her and partner Taliqua Clancy have since become a force to be reckoned with on the international beach volleyball circuit.

Artacho del Solar, together with Clancy, are a medal chance at Paris. Picture: Mark Wilson

After winning silver at the Tokyo Olympics, Artacho del Solar said they were determined to add a beach volleyball gold medal on the purpose-built court at the base of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

“Since T (Taliqua) and I teamed up in 2018, we’ve had a pretty great start to our careers,” the Australian said.

“We knew we had something special between us and we could make great things as a team.

“Paris gold is our next big goal.”