Beach Volleyball at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games
- October 7th-17th, 2018
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
USA Volleyball has named a 4-player roster for beach volleyball at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics. That means they will send the maximum 1 male and 1 female team.
- Men’s Pairing: Tim Brewster (18) and John Schwengel (18)
- Women’s Pairing: Devon Newberry (17) and Lindsey Sparks (18)
- Team Leader/Coach – Ali Wood Lamberson
Newberry and Sparks qualified by finishing 2nd in the NORCECA qualifying tournament held from May 25th-28th. That pair will join the defending NCAA Champion UCLA Bruins beach team next season. Brewster and Schwengel were 3rd in that tournament, but were given a wildcard selection by a tripartate commission – one of 5 such boys’ invites awarded.
The fields at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games will be made up of 32 teams of each gender.
Athletes born between January 1st, 2000 and December 31st, 2003 (ages 15 through 18) are eligible for the 2018 Youth Olympics. The timing means that athletes are only ever eligible for one Youth Olympics: those eligible for the 2018 Games were too young in 2014 and will be too old by 2022.
In the inaugural edition of the Youth Olympics, there was only an indoor volleyball tournament. In 2014, that was replaced with a beach tournament, as the event continues to focus more-and-more on individual and more compact team sports, such as playing 3-on-3 basketball rather than the traditional 5-player version, and 5-per-side Futsal replacing 11-per-side soccer (association football) in 2018.
Brazilian pair of Ana Patricia Silva Ramos/Eduarda Santos Lisboa won gold in 2014, while Russia’s Oleg Stoyanovskiy/Artem Yarzutkin won the boys’ title. 2018 is the 3rd edition of the Youth Olympic Games but just the 2nd with beach volleyball.
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