Copacabana a cathedral for Canada’s sandy stars
RIO DE JANEIRO— There’s something about entering a sport’s sacred cathedral.
There’s no official registry of sporting holy land, of course. And what’s considered sacrosanct can be highly personal. But you mostly know one when you see one. Golf has the Old Course and Augusta National. Tennis has Wimbledon. Baseball has Fenway and Wrigley. And hockey — well, forget hockey. It long ago abandoned or demolished its shrines.
Which brings us to beach volleyball, which held its first unofficial world championship here in those ancient days known as the late1980s and, less than 30 years later, is making its sixth appearance at the Summer Olympics on famed Copacabana Beach.
“It’s the birthplace of beach volleyball,” said Heather Bansley, who is competing here for Canada alongside Sarah Pavan.
Actually, as Bansley later clarified, there are those who love the sport who’ll tell you it isn’t.
“There’s, like, an argument between Americans and Brazilians about who created beach volleyball, who started beach volleyball. But when beach volleyball first started being played as a sport, it was on these beaches.”
In any event, Bansley and Pavan said they were thrilled to have their Olympic debut coincide with Copacabana’s, a feeling that was only heightened by Sunday’s straight-sets opening-match win over the Dutch duo of Sophie van Gestel and Jantine van der Vlist, 21-15, 21-17.
Pavan, 29, is from Kitchener. Bansley, 28, grew up in Waterdown, Ont., before she moved to Toronto. Now they both spend the bulk of the year training in Hermosa Beach, Calif. — that is, when they’re not travelling the world on the pro tour, where they’re consistently seeded among the world’s top handful of teams.
For the Bansley-Pavan twosome, the goal here is podium or bust. And given that simply getting to the Olympics has been a long and difficult quest for both of them, they would have happily attended no matter the venue. Still, to possibly win a medal on these hallowed sands — an outsider could assume it’d be the difference between winning a tennis medal in Beijing in 2008 and winning one in Wimbledon in 2012, when the home of the grass-court grand slam doubled as a venue for the London Olympics. “It’s a special place,” said Pavan. Said Bansley: “(The fans here are) really into it and they’re all very knowledgeable. As an athlete, that’s really exciting for our sport. And rewarding, when people know the game and understand it and can really get into it.”
Bansley and Pavan have a couple of days off before the first of their remaining two preliminary-round games, which take place Wednesday and Thursday against duos from Switzerland and Germany, respectively. And the rest will come in handy.
“Our group here is probably one of the most difficult and balanced,” Pavan said. “I think getting (the opening) match under our belt gives us more confidence. We’re going to have to keep pushing and get better every step of the way. We’ve got some tough games coming up.”
There always seems to be multiple beach-volleyball games going on in Rio. And as Pavan, who played professionally in Brazil a few years back, was pointing out after Sunday’s match, you don’t need to step inside the 12,000-seat temporary stadium that’s been set up here for the Games to see one. Tightly strung volleyball nets are ubiquitous. And the pickup games that always seem to be in progress are a testament to the local love of the game.
Soccer’s the reigning and eternal sporting monarch here, no doubt. But volleyball is in the royal family, too.
“The average person knows what they’re doing on a volleyball court,” Pavan said. “They’re very good. That’s what makes it so great to play here. The fans understand the game. They understand what’s happening. So they have a greater appreciation for what we’re doing.”