Jonas Reckermann (left) and Julius Brink celebrate their Olympic gold (credit: London2012.com)
Beach volleyball is still kind of new, especially at the Olympic level. It's only been a medal sport since the '96 Atlanta Olympics, after featuring as one of the final-ever demonstration sports in Barcelona four years prior.
So to say that Germany's Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann are the first European team ever to win gold, while true, may not sound like it means much. First in a history of ohhh, five whole tournaments. It sounds moderately more impressive when you factor in the women's side and they're still the only European duo to win gold.
The beach game is largely dominated by two nations — the USA and Brazil. Coming into these Games, seven of the eight Olympic gold medals in the history of the sport had been won by one of those two nations (an Australian duo won the women's event at their home Olympics in 2000). And it makes sense. The game was invented in America, and if there's two things that have always been popular in Brazil, it's beaches and volleyball.
The sport has gradually become more globalized since its big spike in popularity in the mid-80's which eventually led to its Olympic introduction (it was actually invented in the 1920's), but still you can't help but think of USA and Brazil as the sport's two top nations. The medal favorites for this tournament were surely Rogers/Dalhausser (USA; defending gold medalists) and Alison/Emanuel (Brazil; as if you couldn't tell by the goofy first-names-only thing) on the men's side, with both nations' second squads Gibb/Rosenthal and Ricardo/Pedro Cunha as definite contenders as well (aside – the mononymous Pedro is actually a different player, though three years younger, and just to confuse you further, Pedro and Cunha have been partners, too. Get it? Me neither). Brink and Reckermann deserved mention with the Gibb/Rosenthal and Ricardo/Cunha teams, but I'm not sure who had them favored above or even around Rogers/Dalhausser or Alison/Emanuel.
They're still a relatively new pairing, having only played together since 2009. Reckermann, the older of the two, played in the 2004 Athens Olympics, and Brink in the 2008 Games in Beijing. Curiously, their respective partners were twin brothers. Their attendances at these Games amounted to very little, but when they joined forces with one another the summer after Beijing, they found some immediate success. They won the FIVB World Tour points title in their first year together, just the third non-American/non-Brazilian team to do it in the league's 20-plus year history (men or women…and there still hasn't been a women's team to win the title that wasn't from USA or Brazil). They won four tournaments, including the world championships, defeating established Brazilian duos each time, as well as a further two runner-up and third place finishes (each). It was a resounding arrival on the world scene.
But it may have been a bit of beginner's luck. The 2010 FIVB season was less rewarding, seeing the duo make only two finals and losing them both, to go with three third-place finishes. They ran into the Americans Rogers and Dalhausser all too often (but then again, who didn't — Rogers/Dalhausser won an astonishing 9 of the 13 tournaments that year). They didn't find the winner's circle in 2011 either, with three title match losses and three third-place finishes to show for themselves. So far in the 2012 FIVB season, they haven't even medaled. Had the world figured them out?
So as London got underway, I thought of Brink and Reckermann as contenders, but not favorites. They've certainly shown the ability, when they're on their game, to execute like no one in the world can, but could they really crash the American/Brazilian party?
They were given a fairly charitable seeding, as #3 in the whole tournament. This would ostensibly paint them as expectant of winning a medal. They got a favorable pool draw as a result — the next most competitive team in their pool was a Swiss duo comprising a 40 year old past his prime and a 25 year old who may well make a little noise in Rio. Ironically, their most competitive pool stage match was against the worst team, the Chinese duo. They actually dropped the first set to them, with service errors and other faults their undoing, and only narrowly won the second before comfortably winning the race to 15 to finish it off.
That was the only set they lost until the gold medal final.
The Latvia #2 squad was, predictably, no trouble for the Germans in their first knockout stage game. The big surprise came in the quarterfinals against Ricardo/Cunha. What I could have easily seen as a back-and-forth bronze medal match coming into the tournament was an easy victory for Brink and Reckermann (21-15, 21-19). With that, they were guaranteed to play for a medal, and with a classy but ultimately overmatched Dutch team facing them in the semis, it was the gold they played for. Their opponents? The tournament #1 seed and reigning FIVB World Tour points champions Alison and Emanuel.
Emanuel is a true legend of the sport, winning the FIVB points championship a stupefying 10 different times with 5 different partners, including five in a row with Ricardo from 2003 to 2007. I could do a whole post about him (and I just might). Alison, still relatively young at 25 and definitely someone to watch for in Rio, is the man to whom Emanuel has decided to pass the torch. And that speaks volumes about him.
The gold medal final didn't fail to deliver on its promise. The first set was a thrilling back-and-forth, with neither side taking a 2-point lead at any time until Reckermann put it away with a smash off Alison to win 23-21. Brazil had had match point at 20-19 and then again at 21-20, but Reckermann staved off the latter with a kill that finished the point of the match, a back-and-forth rally with the ball heading over the net four different times. A hitting error from Emanuel on the next point gave Reckermann the chance to serve for the set, and as I said, he put it away.
Brazil seized control in the second set, with only a couple of service errors early on (one per man) making it even appear competitive. The Germans took timeout down 11-7 and eventually fell behind 17-10. They rallied back to within 19-15, but it was too big a hill to climb. Brink and Reckermann both committed service errors to straight-up give it away at the end 21-16.
That left it to the race to 15 (or so we thought) for the gold medal.
It looked like the turning point was the 5-5 service error off the hand of Alison. The next point was crazy long, culminating with Reckermann spiking Emanuel. The Brazilians took timeout, though it was probably from simple fatigue as much as anything. And they took the next two points, with Emanuel returning the favor to Reckermann to knot it up at 7. But the Germans went on a run from that point to go up 14-11, and that was basically it. Three gold medal points awaited the Germans after Reckermann again bounced one off Emanuel.
But the Brazilians weren't done — an insane six-ball rally followed on 14-11, ending with Alison driving one home off Reckermann. Brink had already dug Emanuel twice, so Alison sent one over on two, and it worked. With Reckermann then hitting one long and Emanuel sneaking a serve in between the two for an ace, all of a sudden it was 14-all in the gold medal final.
Emanuel's run on serve ended on the next point after a kill from Reckermann, and sadly this classic final had a bit of an anticlimactic end on Reckermann's first service as Emanuel's attack error gave the Germans the gold medal 16-14. But what a match!
It's interesting to think what the future holds for these two teams. Brink can realistically bank on being back for Rio — he'll be 34. Reckermann will be 37, and it's easy to figure that he might lose a step or two or a few notches off his swing between now and Rio. He got the majority of the team's serves in London, and that figures to be the case more and more so as time goes on.
Alison will certainly be in Rio, as he'll only be 29 and, scary thought, may only then be truly hitting his prime. Emanuel will be 43 come Rio. I don't know if we'll see him on the court, and I'm not sure I want to. Pick up a little glory on the rest of the FIVB schedule this year Emanuel, and ride off into the sunset. A home Olympics is one heck of a carrot, but I'm afraid it may only drive this mule into hanging on well past his prime. His only appearance at the Rio Games should be to be celebrated as the champion and legend he is.
There's also the matter of what the rest of the world might be up to over the next few years, but that's another story for another post.
For now, Brink and Reckermann deserve to bask in the glory they've attained as history-making Olympic champions.
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