Player profile: Emanuel Rego

Not a whole lot going on in the world of volleyball right now, so I’ll go to an idea I’ve had as an old standby. There will probably be quite a few of these, profile pieces on famous volleyball players. Who better to start off with than perhaps the greatest men’s beach volleyball player ever.

Emanuel (known mononymously as most Brazilian athletes are) began his career in 1991 at the age of 18, starting international play three years later. He was part of the very first Olympic beach volleyball tournament at the Athens Games in 1996, teaming with Zé Marco de Melo (known as Zé Marco) for the second year in a row. The duo finished in ninth place despite entering the tournament as the fifth seed. Any disappointment from the Olympic tournament was short-lived, as Emanuel and Zé Marco cruised to the FIVB points championship, medaling in 10 of the 14 events that year (Emanuel also medaled in one with a different partner). This was Emanuel’s first of a record ten points championships (so far). They repeated the feat in ’97, taking top honors at five events.

Emanuel probably could have won another points championship in 1998 if he stayed with the same partner the whole year, but he had three that season — Jose Loiola, Andre Gomes, and Kent Steffes (who is of course American…I guess rules about team composition were more lax back then). Emanuel and Jose Loiola finished second in the year-end standings. He won events with each of the three partners. Emanuel and Loiola were a more regular partnership in 1999, easily winning the FIVB points championship as well as the world championship tournament and a couple of AVP tour stops.

Then came 2000, and Emanuel’s second Olympics. Partnering with Loiola for the third year in a row and second in a row exclusively, he nonetheless came away with a bitterly disappointing ninth place in Sydney, despite garnering the #2 seed at the beginning of the tournament (and entering as the reigning world champions). While they did pick up four FIVB wins and three on the AVP tour, they were beaten to the FIVB points title by a past partner of Emanuel’s and a future partner of his — Zé Marco and Ricardo Santos (Ricardo). This marked the end of the Emanuel/Loiola partnership.

He moved on to team with Tande Ramos (Tande) in 2001. The team won five of the 11 FIVB tournaments in 2001, though they finished a distant fifth at the world championships. This was still good enough for another FIVB points title on Emanuel’s career resume. 2002 was probably the leanest year of Emanuel’s career, winning just once with Tande in seven events. Towards the end of the year, he joined forces with Ricardo for what would later become perhaps the greatest partnership in beach volleyball history. There were a few growing pains, however, as the duo only garnered two third places in their abbreviated first season together.

The 2003 season was the beginning of something special. It started humbly — at the first two FIVB stops, Greece and Switzerland, Ricardo and Emanuel were eliminated in their first knockout stage matches. But from that point on, they won five of the eight remaining tournaments, including the world championships at home in Rio de Janeiro to close out the season. This easily won them the FIVB points title, Emanuel’s fifth, to break the record shared by Americans Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos, the team that won the first four points titles. They entered 2004 as the unquestioned #1 team in the world.

After flubbing in the past when afforded favorite status, Emanuel’s partnership with Ricardo was bound for glory and not heartbreak. They medaled in 10 of the 14 FIVB events in 2004 (which is quite impressive), and stood on the top step of the podium six of those 10 times (which is staggering). Ironically, their nearest miss was at the Rio Open that closed out the season, as they lost the bronze medal match to a Swiss duo and finished off the podium. But perhaps they were still riding high from the Athens Olympics. As reigning world champions and FIVB tour champions, they were well-deserving of the top seed. And for the first time in Emanuel’s Olympic career, his team played to their potential. They dropped four sets from pool play up through the finals but never lost a match, taking home the Olympic gold.

It was with that Olympic gold that Emanuel displayed a touching act of team spirit and camaraderie. During the men’s marathon, on the last day of the Olympic Games, compatriot Vanderlei de Lima was in what appeared to be an unassailable first position lead on the road when he was wrestled to the ground by a spectator. Having lost his rhythm and perhaps his confidence, de Lima faded and finished the marathon in third place, taking Olympic bronze. The Brazilian national Olympic Committee protested, lobbying to have de Lima awarded a duplicate gold to the Italian athlete who won the race. These protests were denied. Weeks after the games, during a television special back home about Brazil’s Olympic team, Emanuel offered the marathoner his own gold medal to stand in for the one that de Lima, as the narrative goes, had been denied. De Lima was moved by the offer but returned the gold medal to Emanuel, saying that his bronze medal meant gold to him.

The Ricardo/Emanuel team had another six FIVB tour wins in 2005, to go along with five other podium finishes. It’s stunning to think that this was actually a less successful year than 2004, when you consider that they failed to medal at the world championships (in a rare performance that was just straight-up bad, they were 17th at worlds that year). But it was still good enough for another FIVB points title to extend Emanuel’s career record. Their record in 2006 was similar, with another five wins to go with six lower podium placings (they were a fixture on Sunday afternoons in the middle of the decade) and yet another points crown. The duo reached their peak in 2007, taking seven wins in 15 events along with a single second place and their fifth straight points title, breaking Smith and Stoklos’ team record as well.

The upstart team of Pedro Salgado (Pedro) and Harley Silva (Harley) took Ricardo and Emanuel out of the limelight in 2008. Several years their junior, Pedro and Harley’s six tour wins to Ricardo and Emanuel’s two made the former duo the points champions for the year, ending Ricardo and Emanuel’s historic run. However, Pedro and Harley were unable to compete at the Beijing Olympics due to a rule limiting entries to two per country, which allowed Ricardo and Emanuel the chance to return and try to defend their Olympic gold. They were undefeated in pool play, not dropping a set, but they lost in the semifinals of the knockout stage to countrymen Marcio and Fabio. Undeterred, they easily dispatched the team from Georgia in the bronze medal match to take home some hardware for the second Olympics in a row.

The 2009 season was the last for Ricardo and Emanuel as a duo. They won the season-opening tournament in Brazil, the last of their record 33 FIVB tour wins together. Prior to the 2010 season, Emanuel chose Alison Cerutti (Alison) as his new partner, a clear act of ‘passing the torch’ as Alison is 13 years his junior. I can’t really say if it was growing pains or just the absurd dominance of the Americans Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser, because that year was the first since Emanuel’s very first as an international pro that he did not win a single tournament. The team did reach the podium six times.

They were back to the top of the mountain in 2011, winning Emanuel’s tenth points championship (Alison’s first) with five wins that year — which in fact came within a span of six events, including the world championships. They narrowly missed out on this season’s points title to the Americans Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal, but they were second in the points standings with a very solid two wins and four podium places among 11 events (the most podium placings for any team). And as I’ve written about before, the 2012 Olympics completed Emanuel’s set of medals as they had a very strong tournament but lost a fiercely competitive gold medal final to the Germans Jonas Brink and Julius Reckermann.

Here’s a rundown of Emanuel’s FIVB honors:

• Most tour titles in history individually (77) and as a team (33, with Ricardo Santos)
• FIVB Best Hitter 2006
• FIVB Most Inspirational 2011
• FIVB Most Outstanding 2006, 2011
• FIVB Sportsperson 2005, 2010, 2011
• FIVB Team of the Year 2005 (Ricardo Santos), 2006 (Ricardo Santos), 2007 (Ricardo Santos), 2011 (Alison Cerutti)
• FIVB Tour Champion 1996 (Ze Marco de Melo), 1997 (Ze Marco de Melo), 1999 (Jose Loiola), 2001 (Tande Ramos), 2003 (Ricardo Santos), 2004 (Ricardo Santos), 2005 (Ricardo Santos), 2006 (Ricardo Santos), 2007 (Ricardo Santos), 2011 (Alison Cerutti)

Emanuel’s 39. It’s hard to say what the future holds. The big 4-0 is a classic brick wall for pro athletes in all sports, but it’s got to be so tempting for him to hang on for one more Olympic cycle, knowing the next one will be at home in Rio. Win, lose, or draw, what better way to end your career. But I just don’t know. I haven’t heard about too many 43-year old world-class beach volleyball players. If anyone can do it, it’s probably Emanuel.

Whether he’s on the court in four years’ time or not, the tournament should pay special recognition to him. He richly deserves it, for having had easily the most outstanding career in the sport’s history.