GSTAAD, Switzerland – It would have been the easy thing, for any beach volleyball fan to view the Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings era as the golden era of United States Beach Volleyball.

They are, now and almost certainly forever, the greatest beach volleyball team in the history of the sport. And, perhaps in an indirect and roundabout way, it was the golden era when Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor were ruling the world with their three consecutive Olympic gold medals and 33 titles in the run from 2004-2012 – because that golden era galvanized the birth of the medal-producing machine that is the United States we are seeing today.

There is no greater evidence of the giant that has become United States beach volleyball than this week’s entry list at the Gstaad Elite.

Six women’s teams were seeded directly into the main draw, beating the previous U.S. record of five total main draw teams – with another seven who could potentially come out of Wednesday’s qualifier.

Never, at any point in beach volleyball’s history in the Olympic era, has a country been as dominant as the United States currently is.

The difference is that where Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor provided the greatest heavyweight at the top of the food chain the sport has ever seen, the U.S. now adds a depth unlike any country ever has.

Five teams – Kristen Cruz and Taryn Brasher, Audrey Koenig and Alexis Durish, Ally Batenhorst and Sara Hughes, Maddie Anderson and Alaina Chacon, and Devon Newberry and Savvy Cory – have won multiple medals on the Beach Pro Tour this season. Two – Cruz and Brasher, Durish and Koenig – have won multiple golds.

There isn’t a single other country who has won multiple golds — yet the United States has two such teams who have done so.

In fact, so dominant have Cruz and Brasher been this year that they’ve won more gold medals (2) than they have suffered losses (1).

Midway through the Beach Pro Tour season, the U.S. has won 11 total medals in Challenge and Elite events.

The rest of the world has won 19 combined.

And there is no sign the current run is stopping.

Cruz and Brasher enter Gstaad on the precipice of doing something only Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor, and Brazil’s Agatha and Duda have ever done: Win three consecutive golden cowbells.

Like most events, Gstaad has always been favorable to the U.S. and Brazil. Twenty-one of the 26 previous renditions of this tournament have been won by either of the powers, including the last six. Cheng and Hughes have also both made a final here. Megan Kraft, too.

What a time, too, for the U.S. to be asserting its force in a way it never has: On its 250th birthday.

On Saturday, the 17 total American teams – 13 women, 4 men – will celebrate the Fourth of July, America’s 250th such celebration.

It isn’t so much a matter of if there will be an American team representing its country during Saturday’s quarterfinals, but how many.

Other storylines to follow at the Gstaad Elite

Anders Mol, Christian Sorum to miss Gstaad

The 2021 Olympic gold medalists, and two-time winners in Gstaad, will miss the biggest event of the year as Mol continues to rest a shoulder he injured while winning a gold medal at the Saquarema Elite earlier this year. In the eight tournaments they’ve played in Gstaad, they’ve won two golds, a silver and a bronze. Their absence undoubtedly paves the way for a non-Scandinavian country to do what no non-Scandinavian country has been able to do yet in 2026: win an Elite gold medal.

Chase Budinger, Trevor Crabb to make “real” Beach Pro Tour debut

Yes, Chase Budinger and Trevor Crabb technically debuted their compelling new partnership in May at the Nuvali Challenge. And, yes, they finished ninth, with a first-round dud against Latvia’s Adris Bedritis and Arturs Rinkevics in what Crabb called the hottest match he’s ever played.

But it’s hard to use that tournament as a true measuring stick, and neither I, nor my SANDCAST partners, Tri Bourne and Kyle Friend, use it as one, as they discussed in our June mailbag episode. 

Both were coming off an AVP in Huntington Beach in which they played with their previous partners – Miles Evans for Budinger, Phil Dalhausser for Crabb. To expect them to have worked out any kinks, much less all of them, would have been unrealistic.

Now, with some time together, Gstaad will be a far better barometer. They’ll open in the qualifier as the seven seed, although that could change after Tuesday night’s technical meeting.

Ondrej Perusic continues his not-so-retired Tour

If you had listened to the commentary of the Ostrava Elite, when Ondrej Perusic made his first scintillating appearance post pseudo-retirement, you would have heard me begging for “one more year, one more year!” Whether we get a full year or just an event or two more with Perusic, the 2023 MVP of the Beach Pro Tour, is yet to be seen, but the 31-year-old defender will be in Gstaad this week, this time with Matyas Dzavoronok.

It’s fairly common practice for federations to take their veterans, on the way out of competing full time, and pair them with younger partners to help them gain experience and points on the Beach Pro Tour. Perusic did that with Jiri Sedlak, going from the qualifier to the finals in Ostrava. Now he’ll be the 10 seed, defending for the 24-year-old Dzavoronok, a 6-foot-6 jumper who will eclipse his previous career high in prize money regardless of their finish in Gstaad.

Tina Graudina partnering with Liv Ebere

The life of a professional beach volleyball player is viewed, often correctly, as a glamorous one, traveling to the most beautiful locations in the world to play a game. But that travel also has its trade-offs, mostly in the form of missing critical events and milestones back home, wherever that home may be.

This year, Anastasija Samoilova isn’t making that tradeoff.

One of Samoilova’s childhood friends is getting married, and rather than miss it, like she no doubt has missed dozens of enormous occasions, she decided to, instead, miss Gstaad.

So, for the first time in eight years, Samoilova, will not be competing for a cowbell.

Tina Graudina, her longtime partner and the 2025 Beach Pro Tour MVP, will instead be playing with Liv Ebere, an 18-year-old USC recruit who has only ever made a Futures main draw. She does, however, have a win of note: A 21-18, 24-22 victory over Graudina and Samoilova at the 2025 Jurmala Futures.

Landmine alert! Ana Patricia and Duda enter as 11 seed

If you did a double-take while perusing the Gstaad entry list, you wouldn’t be alone: Yes, Ana Patricia and Duda, the 2022 World Champions, the 2024 Olympic gold medalists, are the 11 seed this week in Switzerland. It’s the lowest Ana Patricia has been seeded since the Cancun four-star of 2021 — before Volleyball World even existed! If you think that’s a long time, well, you’d have to go back another five years for Duda, all the way to the Poland Grand Slam in Olsztyn of 2016 — when she was just 18 years old.

Landmine indeed.

Listen to the preview of the Gstaad Elite