For the first time since Chasing Gold’s inception earlier this year, every single athlete will be on the road at the same time.
In two days, Delaney Mewhirter will see her first FIVB action of the year, at the Gstaad four-star country quota. Partnered with Brooke Sweat, this is the first FIVB Mewhirter has played since the Tel Aviv one-star in the fall of 2019.
The next day, Bill Kolinske – and, ideally, Mewhirter as well – will be competing in the qualifier. Kolinske, per usual, will be battling with Miles Evans, entering as the No. 7 seed in the qualifier, four spots behind Casey Patterson, another Chasing Gold athlete seeing just his second tournament of the year. Both Patterson and Kolinske have been nagged with light injuries this year, limiting their play – Patterson pulled out of Cancun; Kolinske withdrew from Sochi and Ostrava.
Nothing like the Swiss Alps to cure the mind and body.
Straight into main draw, of course, are the current hottest team in beach volleyball, Sarah Sponcil and Kelly Claes. Riding a 12-match winning streak that has led to a pair of gold medals, Sponcil and Claes are the highest-seeded American team, coming in at No. 6. Ten spots down the seeding are Emily Stockman and Kelley Kolinske, who made an impressive run at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Though falling just short, they remain one of the highest-ranked teams in the world. Such is the unfortunate consequences of the country quota system. Similarly, Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb, will begin in the main draw.
And then, as soon as Gstaad is over, Stockman’s trip is not. She’ll be hitting the road a little further, to Rwanda, with Traci Callahan who, like Mewhirter, will be competing for the first time of the season. They’ll be joined in Africa by Kolinske and Evans.
It’s an odd time of year to begin a season, most of which begin before the summer.
But it’s competition nonetheless.
It’s time, for the first time, for everyone to hit the road.
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