The last day of this trip was upon us, and it greeted us with a forecast of 30C and clear blue skies. And since the games didn’t start until 1pm, we had the whole morning to explore Adelaide in the beautiful weather. We had breakfast out in Glenelg where we met up with a few other Gold Coasters and Laura’s cousin. It was busy and we had to wait a bit, but it was a really good breakfast. We had a look at the beach courts on the beach where some other Gold Coasters were playing, but that line to Quing of the Court did not seem like my idea of fun. This was a trip about enjoying the sport from afar, even though it was itching in my fingers the whole week to play myself.
Before heading back to the hotel and The Drive, I just had to get in the ocean. So strange going in the ocean with no waves. It was s still. Little bit colder in the water than SEQ, but not too bad. Definitely refreshing!
First two games of the day, the bronze medal games. I was really hoping that Germany would win, but France played so well! They deserved it. The women’s bronze medal game was between Brazil and Brazil. And guess who won? Brazil, haha!
The bronze games were a good warm-up leading up to the main event. When I bought the tickets on pre-sale in March, I was hoping that Åhman/Hellvig would be in the final against Norway’s Mol/Sørum. Because at that time, Hölting Nilsson/Andersson weren’t even playing on that level. I have known about them, but to the world, they have been pretty much unknown until this year, until they started getting some pretty good results on the Beach Pro Tour. Having the tickets, my hopes to see two Swedish teams play in the World Champs were getting bigger and bigger with the young ones’ results. Until very close to the actual event, when I even started hoping for a Swedish final. But how big were those chances? They would have to be on separate sides of the bracket. And that happened! The chances of that happening can’t be large out of 48 teams in total.
For the final, almost every single Swede gathered in the back of the Premium seats. The cheerleading squad was massive! A girl that I had been coaching for a while back home in Sweden, messaged me the night before and asked if I believed there were tickets left for the final because she apparently was living in Sydney. So she flew in from Sydney just for the final.
It was fun that we got to celebrate every single point, and what a game. Especially the first set. The 19-20 point which the young ones saved was incredible and after that it was just point by point up to 25-23 to the older ones in the first set.
Since are training with the same coaches (Rasmus Jonsson and Anders Kristiansson), both of them stepped off and just watched the game and let the boys play their own game. And it was so much fun! They know each other inside out, they could not fool each other with the jump sets, they were playing the same defensive game, were reading the fake options/jump sets incredibly, and it was just such a show! I would have loved three sets, but honestly, it doesn’t get much more even than 25-23, 21-19.
This is too hilarious. The big VIP ball and the two squeezed-in people to his right are dear friends of ours from Gold Coast. They were on the big screen and interviewed by the host during a time-out. Absolutely obnoxious 😅
I am very happy that David and Jonatan won, they now have gold in:
- European Championship
- Olympics
- World Championship
As well as countless of Junior Gold’s as well.
And the insane thing? They are only 23 and 24 years old. The youngest world Champions of all times. They got so much left. As do The Icemen. We have much to look forward to when it comes to Swedish beach volleyball. I hope to experience something similar when the Olympics come to Brisbane in 2032.
All in all, this trip was… Shit, I honestly don’t have words for it. Unbelievable. Historical. Incredible. Amazing. So much fun! So many people from back home have reached out when they spotted me in the audience. Everyone being so jealous that I got to experience it in person. And I am so thankful and grateful that I had the opportunity to go. It cost a little bit of money, but it was worth it so many times over. Both for the fact that I got to witness world class beach volleyball, Sweden dominating the rest of the world, but also because this sparked interest for the sport within Mikael. It took almost six years, and a semi-expensive trip to Adelaide for him to want to start training. I’m happy with that. It has been a waste of height with his 194cm, for sure.
Bemm 