Welcome to the Road to Adelaide, our series breaking down the race to qualifying for the 2025 Beach Volleyball World Championships, which will be held in Adelaide, Australia, November 14-23. Of the 48 teams who qualify for the World Championships, 25 are earned via points, the standings of which are determined by your best six finishes in the 2025 year up through October 5, which follows a Beach Pro Tour Challenge event in Mexico. There is a country quota of four teams per federation who can qualify. 

It began in Mexico. It ended in Mexico.

After seven months of qualifying events for the beach volleyball world championships, the race is alas finished. The top-25 points have been determined, the continental spots trickled out, the wild cards gifted. Below are the 48 teams per gender who will be competing in Adelaide this November for a shot at the title of World Champion.

Of particular note: Norway, recipients of the wild card given to Adrian Mol and Markus Mol, will have four Mol brothers and a Mol cousin, Mathias Bertnsen, in the World Championships, living up to the name I bestowed upon them in China earlier this year: It’s the Beach Mol Tour.

Javier Bello and Joaquin Bello, after a down year in which they didn’t make a single quarterfinal, were given a wild card.

If Chaim Schalk and James Shaw do not find a way to sneak in, this will be the fewest men’s USA Volleyball teams (2) to compete in a World Championship in history. It’s still a coin flip whether or not they do, as teams often run into visa problems, late injuries, etc.

Final Men’s Beach Volleyball World Championships Standings

  1. Anders Mol, Christian Sorum, Norway: 6500 (6)
  2. Stefan Boermans, Yorick de Groot, Netherlands: 6200 (6)
  3. David Ahman, Jonatan Hellvig, Sweden: 5480 (6)
  4. Evandro Goncalves, Arthur Lanci, Brazil: 5220 (6)
  5. Michal Bryl, Bartosz Losiak, Poland: 5020 (6)
  6. Jorge Alayo, Noslen Diaz, Cuba: 5020 (6)
  7. Ondrej Perusic, David Schweiner, Czech Republic: 4960 (6)
  8. Jacob Holting-Nilsson, Elmer Andersson, Sweden: 4960 (6)
  9. Steven van De Velde, Alex Brouwer, Netherlands: 4800 (6)
  10. Cherif Younousse, Ahmed Tijan, Qatar: 4740 (6)
  11. Tomas Capogrosso, Nico Capogrosso, Argentina: 4600 (6)
  12. Martins Plavins, Kristians Fokerots, Latvia: 4240 (6)
  13. Clemens Wickler, Nils Ehlers, Germany: 3940 (6)
  14. Timo Hammarberg, Tim Berger, Austria: 3920 (6)
  15. Teo Rotar, Arnaud Gauthier-Rat, France: 3880 (6)
  16. Miles Evans, Chase Budinger, USA: 3860 (6)
  17. Remi Bassereau, Calvin Aye, France: 3800 (6)
  18. Mark Nicolaidis, Izac Carracher, Australia: 3700 (6)
  19. George Wanderley, Saymon Barbosa, Brazil: 3340 (6)
  20. Paul Henning, Lui Wust, Germany: 3620 (6)
  21. Hendrik Mol, Mathias Berntsen, Norway: 3500 (6)
  22. Lukas Pfretzschner, Sven Winter, Germany: 3480 (6)
  23. Joao Pedrosa, Hugo Campos, Portugal: 3460 (6)
  24. Marco Krattiger, Leo Dillier, Switzerland: 3460 (6)
  25. Yves Haussener, Julian Freidli, Switzerland — European Continental
  26. Chris Dresser, Philipp Waller, Austria — European CS
  27. Ruben Penninga, Matthew Immers, Netherlands — European CS
  28. Adrian Heidrich, Jonathan Jordan, Switzerland — European CS
  29. Marco Grimalt, Esteban Grimalt, Chile — South America CS
  30. Javier Bello, Joaquin Bello, England — Wild Card
  31. Andy Benesh, Miles Partain, USA — NORCECA CS
  32. Andre Loyola, Renato Lima, Brazil — South America CS
  33. Sam Schachter, Jonathan Pickett, Canada — NORCECA CS
  34. Markus Mol, Adrian Mol, Norway — Wild Card
  35. Bautista Amieva, Maciel Bueno, Argentina — South America CS
  36. Brad Fuller, Ben O’Dea, New Zealand — Asia CS
  37. Hans Hannibal, Nicolas Llambias, Uruguay — South America CS
  38. Jack Pearse, D’Artagnan Potts, Australia — Asia CS
  39. Ben Hod, Oliver Merritt, Australia — HT
  40. Paul Burnett, Thomas Hodges, Australia — Asia CS
  41. Ruben Mora, Dany Lopez, Nicaragua — NORCECA CS
  42. Luke Ryan, ZAch Schubert, Australia — Wild Card
  43. Anass Saber, Soufiane El Gharouti, Marocco — Africa CS
  44. Jose Mondlane, Osvaldo Mungoi, Mozambique — Africa CS
  45. Yanwei Wang, Hongjun Du, China — Asia CS
  46. Daouda Yacoubou, Mensan Tohouegnon, Benin — Africa CS
  47. Damian Gomez, Eblis Veranes, Cuba — NORCECA CS
  48. Koffi Kotoka, Kuamivi Samani, Togo — Africa CS
Kelly Cheng-Thamela

Kelly Cheng hits past Thamela in Joao Pessoa/Volleyball World photo

Final Women’s Beach Volleyball World Championships Standings

Notable additions and late qualifiers for the women include a properly distributed wild card to the Netherlands’ Raisa Schoon and Katja Stam, who won gold out of the qualifier in Veracruz. They will be a certifiable land mine. It’s also fitting that Mila Konink, Stam’s injury fill-in this season who blocked and played well with Schoon, qualified, sneaking in with Desy Poisez.

Aside from that, this World Championships is expected to be a Brazil-USA showdown, with the top-four teams all hailing from one of the two, and six of the top seven.

  1. Thamela Coradelli, Victoria Lopes, Brazil: 6120 (6)
  2. Carol Salgado, Rebecca Cavalcanti, Brazil: 5960 (6)
  3. Kristen Nuss, Taryn Brasher, USA: 5560 (6)
  4. Terese Cannon, Megan Kraft, USA: 5480 (6)
  5. Tina Graudina, Anastasija Samoilova, Latvia: 5380 (6)
  6. Ana Patricia, Duda, Brazil: 5360 (6)
  7. Kelly Cheng, Molly Shaw, USA: 5260 (6)
  8. Svenja Muller, Cinja Tillmann, Germany: 5080 (6)
  9. Reka Orsi Toth, Valentina Gottardi, Italy: 5020 (6)
  10. Melissa Humana-Paredes, Brandie Wilkerson, Canada: 5000 (6)
  11. Anouk Verge-Depre, Zoe Verge-Depre, Switzerland: 4920 (6)
  12. Dorina Klinger, Ronja Klinger, Austria: 4380 (6)
  13. Clemence Vieira, Aline Chamereau, France: 4000 (6)
  14. Tanja Huberli, Leona Kernen, Switzerland: 3880 (6)
  15. Daniela Alvarez, Tania Moreno, Spain: 3700 (6)
  16. Julia Donlin, Lexy Denaburg, USA: 3700 (6)
  17. Linda Bock, Louisa Lippmann, Germany: 3540 (6)
  18. Marketa Svozilova, Marie-Sara Stochlova, Czech Republic: 3460 (6)
  19. Sandra Ittlinger, Anna-Lena Grune, Germany: 3420 (6)
  20. Claudia Scampoli, Giada Bianchi, Italy: 3390 (6)
  21. Daria Romaniuk, Tetiana Lazarenko, Ukraine: 3640 (6)
  22. Emi van Driel, Wies Bekhuis, Netherlands: 3170 (6)
  23. Valentyna Davidova, Anhelina Khmil, Ukraine: 3060 (6)
  24. Taliqua Clancy, Jana Milutinovic, Australia — Wild Card
  25. Hegeile Almeida Dos Santos, Vitoria de Souza, Brazil — South America CS
  26. Giuliana Corrales, Michelle Valiente, Paraguay — South America CS
  27. Malgorzata Ciezkowska, Urszula Lunio, Poland — Europe CS
  28. Monika Paulikiene, Aine Raupelyte, Lithuania — Europe CS
  29. Lezana Placette, Alexia Richard, France — Europe CS
  30. Elizabeth Alchin, Georgia Johnson, Australia — Asia CS
  31. Mila Konink, Desy Poisez, Netherlands — Europe CS
  32. Katja Stam, Raisa Schoon, Netherlands — Wild Card
  33. Shaunna Polley, Liv MacDonald, New Zealand — Asia CS
  34. Melanie Paul, Lea Kunst, Germany — Wild Card
  35. Maria Gonzalez, Allanis Navas, Puerto Rico — NORCECA CS
  36. Asami Shiba, Reika Murakami, Japan — Asia CS
  37. Susana Torres, Atena Gutierrez, Mexico — NORCECA CS
  38. Jasmine Fleming, Stefanie Fejes, Australia — HT
  39. Lea Monkhouse, Marie-Alex Belanger, Canada — NORCECA CS
  40. Claudia Gaona, Lisbeth Allcca, Peru — South America CS
  41. Brenda Churin, Morena Abdala, Argentina — South America CS
  42. Jingzhe Wang, Xinyi Xia, China — Asia CS
  43. Mahassine Siad, Dina Mellal, Marocco — Africa CS
  44. Vanessa Muianga, Mercia Mucheza, Mozambique — Africa CS
  45. Pamela Bawa, Esther Mbah, Nigeria — Africa CS
  46. Tara Phillips, Kayla Mears, Australia — Wild Card
  47. Marwa Abdelhady, Nada Hamdy, Egypt — Africa CS
  48. Crismil Paniagua, Julibeth Payano, Dominican Republic — NORCECA CS