And there are two. Italian beach volleyball celebrates the second Italian couple qualified for the Paris Games. A week after qualification obtained by Paolo Nicolai and Samuele Cottafavathe light blue colors in the next five-circle review will also be represented by Marta Menegatti and Valentina Gottardi. The official announcement for the federal couple came after the excellent path undertaken by the Italians about two and a half years ago: after their debut in 2021 at the Sardinia Beach Finals, Marta and Valentina then continued their journey achieving excellent results in the most important tournaments of the international circuit. Performances that enabled the athletes coached by Caterina De Marinis to fulfill the Olympic dream, guaranteed by the current eighth place in the ranking.
For the Air Force athlete Marta Menegatti, as for Paolo Nicolai, this is the fourth participation in the Olympic Games after London 2012, Rio de Janeiro 2016 and Tokyo 2020. For the Fiemme Oro athlete Valentina Gottardi, however, it will be the official debut.
Euphoric Marta Menegatti: «I am very excited for my fourth edition of the Olympic Games. Perhaps this qualification was the most unexpected. I still remember the first tournament I did together with Valentina and since then we have come a long way. We have forged ahead by climbing the world rankings in a very short time. Realistically, at the beginning of our journey I wasn’t thinking about our qualification; usually a new couple in beach volleyball takes a little longer to get going, to assimilate the right mechanisms and therefore to reach a certain solidity, fundamental aspects in a sport like ours. Let’s say that it was all a huge surprise which however has now materialized in this Olympic qualification. We played a lot and had a lot of fun; I hope to face the Games with our usual spirit, living every single moment of a unique experience. We will give our best as we always have from the first day we put our feet in the sand together.”
On the same wavelength too Valentina Gottardi: «Olympic qualification is a source of enormous satisfaction, both personally and as a team. It’s a feeling built over time. In fact, the path to Paris began a few years ago and is the result of growing results that we have achieved with patience, sacrifices and hard work. The emotion is strong, and for me it is inevitable to think of our first tournament played together, the Sardinia Finals in 2021, when I made my debut on the world circuit. Marta and all the other athletes involved in that tournament were veterans of the Tokyo Olympic Games. The exception was me, eighteen years old and present at the event thanks to a wild card. I told myself that I would have to earn my future in beach volleyball with the utmost effort; today I am very proud to have honored the federal project that was born then. We have been preparing for the Olympics for some time and we will face it as always: together, with even more concentration and energy. Qualifying in advance will allow us to work peacefully in the coming months. The goal is to bring this same serenity under the Eiffel Tower.”
Satisfied the coach Caterina De Marinis: «The official status of the Olympic qualification was clearly welcomed with great joy and happiness by all of us, athletes and staff included. Years ago, when we started this journey together, qualifying for the Games was one of our great objectives and having achieved it represents a source of pride. We worked hard to qualify; now we will continue to do so to compete in the event to the best of our ability. Marta and Valentina’s journey as a couple since 2021 has been gradual; we started with Future tournaments precisely to give the couple the opportunity to play as many matches as possible and grow, especially for Valentina, who, given her age, had clearly had little experience at an international level. Little by little we then entered the Challenge circuit before taking part, now permanently, in Elite16 tournaments. It was therefore a journey of growth and comparison with teams even stronger than us. All this has allowed us to increase our level and reach this great goal. It was a good start to the season, we started with fifth and fourth place at the Elite16 in Qatar and Mexico. In view of the Olympic Games we will go to Portugal at the end of the month to participate in the Elite16 in Espinho and then we will go to the Czech Republic for the Elite16 in Ostrava. Close to Paris we will participate in the tournaments in Gstaad and Vienna, events that will allow us to finalize the final details in view of the Olympic Games”.
