Australia beach volleyball team get taste of Paris Olympics venue beneath Eiffel Tower
They will have arguably the best view from the best venue in the entire 2024 Paris Olympic Games. And the Aussie beach volleyball team are still pinching themselves.
Australia’s beach volleyballers dug their toes into the sand underneath the Eiffel Tower and then uttered words like “awesome”, “magical” and “amazing”.
The Eiffel Tower Stadium is arguably the most breathtaking venue in the history of the Olympic Games. Even without a crowd filling the stands the place has an electric feel.
Tokyo 2020 beach volleyball silver medallists Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar, along with Olympic debutants Thomas Hodges, Zachery Schubert, Izac Carracher and Mark Nicolaidis, were all in awe of the location as they took in the iconic view.
“I think we’re all thinking it’s pretty unbelievable,” Carracher said. “We’ve seen all the photos, we’ve seen all the hype around, playing under the Eiffel Tower and it is probably the most unbelievably amazing stadium - potentially of all time and the Olympics - but then seeing that in person is a whole other story.”
“There’s definitely an aura to the venue that it’s built for greatness and hopefully we can have a magical moment for Australia.”
Carracher and his partner Mark Nicolaidis described themselves as “underdogs” fighting for an Olympic medal in the first Games on the grandest stage of all. They secured Olympic qualification just earlier this month.
Meanwhile Hodges, 30, who’d fought his way back from shoulder injuries, converted from indoor volleyball to beach, was visibly awestruck by the venue and the moment.
“Just looking around at this huge stadium so many people are going to be here watching us in only a few days, it’s pretty surreal,” Hodges said. “It’s the first time I’m playing next to such an icon, that’s for sure.”
Hodges and his partner Schubert, who recovered from a “dark” time after a long recovery from surgery on both knees, say they are going to have a crack at a medal at their first Games. “We are in the mix,” Schubert said.
It is the first time Australia will have two men’s beach volleyball teams at an Olympics since Athens 2004.
The atmosphere, as it always is, at beach volleyball, is expected to be “electric”, but perhaps extra electric considering the location, admits Olympic silver medallist Clancy.
“I am definitely not being biased but it’s the best venue of it all,” Clancy said. “It’s going to be so special playing from the Eiffel Tower, it’s so unique.”
Clancy is partnering up with Mariafe Artacho del Solar again, both women are at their third Olympics, and she too was blown away by the venue. “It’s magical,” Artacho del Solar said.
The Australian women claimed a historic silver Olympic medal in Tokyo Australia’s first in beach volleyball at the Olympics. They firmly focussed on getting the job done again.
“Look it’s really special for us to come in,carrying a silver medal but also very much every Olympic journey is different,” Clancy said. “And so now it’s just completely, straight back onto a new job.”
Clancy said it was about taking it one step at a time, Artacho del Solar echoed her.
“We take that little bit of an advantage having been in the finals [in Tokyo],” Artacho del Solar said. “We believe we were capable of going back there, but we’re just going to take it one point at a time and just focus on our processes.”
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