Paris, France, June 29, 2024: Qatar’s crack men’s beach volleyball pair of Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan now know their first-round opponents in Paris after the FIVB conducted the draw for the men’s and women’s events.
Cherif/Ahmed, Olympic bronze medallists at Tokyo 2020, will play in Pool A against David Åhman/Jonatan Hellvig (Sweden), Paolo Nicolai/Samuele Cottafava (Italy) and Mark Nicolaidis/Izac Carracher (Australia).
The competition formula for beach volleyball at the Paris Games will be the same as that of Tokyo 2020, with the 24 teams in each gender being split into six pools of four teams.
At the end of the round-robin pool play, the six pool winners, six pool runners-up and the two best-ranked third-placed teams will qualify directly to the Round of 16, occupying 14 of the 16 spots available.
The remaining four third-placed teams will play a “lucky loser” round, composed of two matches, from where the last two teams to play in the Round of 16 will emerge.
The tournament then becomes direct knockout from the Round of 16 through to the quarterfinals, semifinals and final, with a bronze medal play-off before the final.
The 24 duos in each gender were distributed into six pools for the start of the Olympic tournament
Having the iconic Eiffel Tower in the background, the Drawing of Lots for the Paris Games was held at the 14,000-seat Olympic beach volleyball stadium at Champ-de-Mars Park, which will host the matches from July 27 to August 10.
Men
Pool A: David Åhman/Jonatan Hellvig (Sweden), Paolo Nicolai/Samuele Cottafava (Italy), Cherif Younousse/Ahmed Tijan (Qatar), Mark Nicolaidis/Izac Carracher (Australia)
Pool B: Anders Mol/Christian Sørum (Norway), Matthew Immers/Steven van de Velde (the Netherlands), Alex Ranghieri/Adrian Carambula (Italy), Marco Grimalt/Esteban Grimalt (Chile)
Pool C: Nils Ehlers/Clemens Wickler (Germany), Michal Bryl/Bartosz Łosiak (Poland), Thomas Hodges/Zachery Schubert (Australia), Julien Lyneel/Rémi Bassereau (France)
Pool D: Andre Loyola/George Wanderley (Brazil), Andy Benesh/Miles Partain (USA), Noslen Diaz/Jorge Alayo (Cuba), Mohammed Abicha/Zouheir Elgraoui (Morocco)
Pool E: Ondrej Perusic/David Schweiner (Czechia), Evandro Gonçalves/Arthur Lanci (Brazil), Julian Hörl/Alexander Horst (Austria), Sam Schachter/Dan Dearing (Canada)
Pool F: Youssef Krou/Arnaud Gauthier-Rat (France), Stefan Boermans/Yorick de Groot (the Netherlands), Pablo Herrera/Adrián Gavira (Spain), Miles Evans/Chase Budinger (USA)
Women
Pool A: Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa/Ana Patrícia Ramos (Brazil), Marta Menegatti/Valentina Gottardi (Italy), Liliana Fernández/Paula Soria (Spain), Doaa Elghobashy/Marwa Abdelhady (Egypt)
Pool B: Taryn Kloth/Kristen Nuss (USA), Chen Xue/Xinyi Xia (China), Taliqua Clancy/Mariafe Artacho (Australia), Heather Bansley/Sophie Bukovec (Canada)
Pool C: Kelly Cheng/Sara Hughes (USA), Cinja Tillmann/Svenja Müller (Germany), Clémence Vieira/Aline Chamereau (France), Barbora Hermannová/Marie-Sára Štochlova (Czechia)
Pool D: Brandie Wilkerson/Melissa Humana-Paredes (Canada), Tina Graudina/Anastasija Samoilova (Latvia), Esmée Böbner/Zoé Vergé-Dépré (Switzerland), Michelle Valiente/Giuliana Poletti (Paraguay)
Pool E: Carol Salgado/Bárbara Seixas (Brazil), Raisa Schoon/Katja Stam (the Netherlands), Monika Paulikiene/Aine Raupelyte (Lithuania), Miki Ishii/Akiko Hasegawa (Japan)
Pool F: Alexia Richard/Lézana Placette (France), Nina Brunner/Tanja Hüberli (Switzerland), Daniela Álvarez/Tania Moreno (Spain), Laura Ludwig/Louisa Lippmann (Germany)
