RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – Terese Cannon is one of the few American women’s beach volleyball players who is not playing this weekend, at the Beach Pro Tour Rio Elite.

But, sitting on the SANDCAST studio couch in Hermosa Beach, her previously injured right shoulder now out of a sling, she couldn’t help but marvel at the entry list.

“You guys always talk about a college-style format in professional beach volleyball,” she said. “Rio is kind of it.”

Indeed, while it may not feature the exact five pairs vs. five pairs NCAA-style format, this week’s Rio Elite is little more than a clash of the sport’s longtime heavyweights: USA Volleyball vs. Brazil.

Thirteen of the 16 teams seeded directly into the main draw hail from either Brazil or the U.S.

Somewhat preposterous numbers, sure, but lest you think this is unusual, somehow, it isn’t.

Since the dawn of the Volleyball World era in 2022, Brazil has hosted 20 Elites or Challenges, including this week’s in Rio. So dominant have the two aforementioned powers been that seven podiums have featured only Americans and Brazilians, including the last two in Rio.

To find the last women’s team outside of the U.S. or Brazil to medal in Rio, you’d have to go back to 2017.

Of the 57 medals awarded in Brazil-hosted events since 2022 – Challenges and Elites only – 34 have been won by either Brazil or the U.S., including 12 golds.

This week should prove to be no different, as it is almost a mathematical impossibility for neither country to be standing on the podium.

Remarkably, this comes without the No. 1 team in the world, Kristen Cruz and Taryn Brasher, or the former No. 1, Ana Patricia and Duda, participating, or even Devon Newberry and Savvy Cory and Cannon herself, all of whom would have enough points to be directly into the main draw.

So while the path to the podium is as narrow as it has ever been for European and Asian countries, it is, perhaps counterintuitively, as open as it has been for the U.S. and Brazil. Carol Salgado won here in 2024, in a magnificent send-off for Barbara Seixas, and in 2025 with Rebecca Cavalcanti, and the tireless 38-year-old is again the top seed in her home event.

How good is Carol in Brazil?

Four of her last five victories have come at home.

Although they are just the six seed, Kelly Cheng and Megan Kraft are as likely to win in Rio as anyone. They are coming off a silver in Gstaad, and both have enjoyed abundant success in Brazil: Kraft fell to Carol and Barbara in the 2024 Rio finals, finished third in Rio in 2025, and lost a gold medal match to her now-partner, Cheng, and Molly Shaw in Joao Pessoa.

The debut of the Kraft-Cheng partnership, in Joao Pessoa earlier this year, had them standing on an all-Brazil-U.S. podium in Bronze.

The bigger question, then, is who could possibly stop either unstoppable force?

Raisa Schoon and Katja Stam are as good a candidate as you’ll find in Rio. The three seed, Stam and Schoon are riding consecutive medals – silver in Ostrava and bronze in Gstaad – and haven’t finished worse than fifth since the season-opener in Joao Pessoa in March. Spain’s Sofia Izuzquiza and Tania Moreno have fared well in Challenges, winning gold in Alanya and finishing fifth this past weekend in Shangluo, China, but the travel from China to Brazil is not for the faint of heart, requiring a massive time shift and a minimum of two days in the air.

If the women’s side is a mostly two-sided, collegiate-style affair, the men’s side is as open as any Elite all year.

Europe (mostly) stays home in Rio Elite’s wide open men’s field

With European Championships being held in two weeks in Stare Jablonki, Poland, with an all-important Olympic bid on the line to the winning federation, most European teams have stayed back to tune up for next week’s Hamburg Elite and peak for Europeans. The only Scandinavian representative is fourth-seeded Norwegians Hendrik Mol and Mathias Berntsen, who have taken much of the year off due to injury.

Three of the world’s top four teams – David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig, Jacob Holting-Nilsson and Elmer Andersson, Anders Mol and Christian Sorum – are all sitting out, as is world No. 9 Bartosz Losiak and Michal Bryl and the top American duo of Andy Benesh and Taylor Crabb, who are playing an exhibition being put on by Kerri Walsh Jennings.

Perhaps Australia, in the midst of its golden summer, will alas break through at an Elite, with Thomas Hodges and Ben Hood straight into the main draw.

Perhaps George Wanderley and his new blocker, Pedro Sousa, will revive a strangely dormant Brazilian federation, which won its lone medal in Gstaad, kudos of a heroic playoff run from Arthur and Evandro.

Perhaps Miles Partain and James Shaw, in what could be their final tournament as partners, will tap into the full height of their enormous potential and break through.

Perhaps Trevor Crabb and Chase Budinger will stay hot after a tremendous silver medal performance in Gstaad.

Perhaps many things.

That’s the beauty of this event: Where the women’s side is an all-intriguing slugfest, the men’s is a parity-driven, opportunity-laden affair.

One that Cannon, and the rest of the beach volleyball world, will be watching with fascination.