RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft were mired in a polarity of emotions known only to an exceedingly unique group of individuals: silver medalists.
On the one hand, there they were, the second-best team at the conclusion of the Rio de Janeiro Elite16. They won five matches and lost only one, the gold medal match to Brazil’s Barbara and Carol. They knew they played tremendous beach volleyball that week, some of the best of their partnership. Through five matches, they were, without question, the best team in a field replete with elite teams.
Yet the sting of the loss cut through all of that.
They wanted the gold that eluded them in Gstaad and again in Vienna, where they finished second and third, respectively.
Twenty-four hours later, imagine the shift.
Cannon could barely say the words aloud, so fearful was she of jinxing what she was looking at on her phone. There were her and Kraft’s name on the final roster for the Beach Pro Tour Finals, a tournament featuring the top 10 teams in the world – eight and two wild cards, should they be given – with a $150,000 prize for the winners. Thanks to that silver medal, their third straight podium finish, Cannon and Kraft leapt nearly 10 places, up to No. 14 in the world rankings. With a host of teams ahead of them out due to partner splits, retirement, injury, or pregnancy, being No. 14 was good enough.
And they didn’t even need a wild card.
Sure, they needed some help. It’s not often five teams ahead of you – Esmee Bobner retired, as did Italy’s Marta Menegatti, Joana Mader is pregnant, Nina Brunner is looking to start a family, Carol and Barbara split, finishing their partnership poetically with that gold in Rio — will suddenly drop out, but Cannon and Kraft did something only three teams in the world did this season to put themselves in that position in the first place.
Rio marked their third consecutive medal at an Elite16. Prior to last weekend, that was a feat belonging only to Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth. Thamela Coradelli and Victoria Lopes, who won bronze in Rio, also joined that list, but at No. 29 in the world ranks, they would have required a wild card.
That wild card, instead, went to Italy’s Valentina Gottardi and Reka Orsi Toth, who debuted with a fifth in Rio, losing only to Barbara and Carol in the quarterfinals.
The men’s side used both wild cards, the first going, predictably, to the home team, Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan, the other going, less predictably, to the Czech Republic’s Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner, the reigning World Champs who haven’t played a major event since the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, where they finished ninth. (perhaps worth noting: They did win a Futures in Brno in August).
