Great powers of sport still far from the sand at the World Beach Games 2019
Great Britain vs USA in Women’s Beach Soccer Preliminary Group B at Katara Beach during day three of the 1st ANOC World Beach Games Qatar 2019 (Photo Konstantinos Tsakalidis / Laurel Photo Services)
DOHA, October 24, 2019 – New sports and new hierarchies. The inaugural edition of the ANOC World Beach Games showed global involvement and Olympic spirit throughout its length (11th-16th October 2019), in an environment characterized by Qatari hospitality. But in comparison to the main event that will take place next year in Tokyo for the 32nd time, a clear difference emerges when we look at the AWBG’s medal tally.
The podium says: Spain, Brazil, Italy. USA are only in 4th position, Russia shortly follows at the 6th. No trace of Germany (13th), China and Great Britain (both 21st and without any gold medal). All in all, the sentence from the sand is clear: the great powers of sport just look away.
The top ten teams on the medal table of the ANOC World Beach Games 2019
THE POWER OF SUN – What can explain this trend? To a certain extent, climate matters. Also the medal table of the Winter Olympics steadily shows the presence of cold countries (Norway, Canada, Switzerland) that are hardly competitive in the Summer version. Similarly, the Beach Games were the triumph of Mediterranean if not tropical realities. It was simply more likely for beach soccer or beach tennis to be born on the sunny shores of Rio de Janeiro and of the Italian Adriatic. A traditionally sporting country like Germany, on the other hand, struggles to open to the sand as it brought only 20 athletes to Doha. Italians were 35, Spaniards 62, Brazilians, most of anyone, 77. Americans (70) and Russians (55) held on in this regard. Still, their results were disappointing.
FIRST MOVER ADVANTAGE – The second issue, is that the ones admired in Qatar are all relatively young sports and their popularity is still very country-specific. Therefore, it should not be surprising that the best performance from Team USA was the double gold in beach volleyball, originally performed in Santa Monica, CA, or that all the five Japanese medals were from action sports (bouldering and skateboarding) deeply rooted in the country. In all these disciplines, pioneers proved to have a key advantage. Some signs of catching up could be seen in the case of Russia (with remarkable medals from 3x3 basketball, beach tennis and beach soccer), much less for China or Great Britain.
SPACE FOR NEW SPORTS – Then, it may be puzzling to comment the outstanding performance of Spain, winner of the medal tally with 7 golds, 1 silver and 2 bronzes. They did not invent anything, yet providing multi-sport excellence from karate kata to aquathlon and beach soccer. For weather conditions, Spain fits indeed the propensity to Beach Games we see in temperate countries. Moreover, the local sport federation seized the opportunity to emerge through new sports, as there is little room for booming in winter disciplines as well as in the Olympics, where Spain never reached the top 10 of the medal tally apart from Barcelona 1992.
In contrast, great powers of sport have less incentives to invest in disciplines whose long-term appeal is still far from known. For the basketball homeland, 3x3 may be a second category format. And the American women can enjoy FIFA World Cup success without the need to escape to the sand. Rumors from the sidelines noticed a sort of ‘holiday mood’ around Team USA in Katara Beach, while Spanish and Brazilians were intensely leading the event on and off the field. The precondition of any successful turnaround, sports included.
The podium says: Spain, Brazil, Italy. USA are only in 4th position, Russia shortly follows at the 6th. No trace of Germany (13th), China and Great Britain (both 21st and without any gold medal). All in all, the sentence from the sand is clear: the great powers of sport just look away.
THE POWER OF SUN – What can explain this trend? To a certain extent, climate matters. Also the medal table of the Winter Olympics steadily shows the presence of cold countries (Norway, Canada, Switzerland) that are hardly competitive in the Summer version. Similarly, the Beach Games were the triumph of Mediterranean if not tropical realities. It was simply more likely for beach soccer or beach tennis to be born on the sunny shores of Rio de Janeiro and of the Italian Adriatic. A traditionally sporting country like Germany, on the other hand, struggles to open to the sand as it brought only 20 athletes to Doha. Italians were 35, Spaniards 62, Brazilians, most of anyone, 77. Americans (70) and Russians (55) held on in this regard. Still, their results were disappointing.
FIRST MOVER ADVANTAGE – The second issue, is that the ones admired in Qatar are all relatively young sports and their popularity is still very country-specific. Therefore, it should not be surprising that the best performance from Team USA was the double gold in beach volleyball, originally performed in Santa Monica, CA, or that all the five Japanese medals were from action sports (bouldering and skateboarding) deeply rooted in the country. In all these disciplines, pioneers proved to have a key advantage. Some signs of catching up could be seen in the case of Russia (with remarkable medals from 3x3 basketball, beach tennis and beach soccer), much less for China or Great Britain.
SPACE FOR NEW SPORTS – Then, it may be puzzling to comment the outstanding performance of Spain, winner of the medal tally with 7 golds, 1 silver and 2 bronzes. They did not invent anything, yet providing multi-sport excellence from karate kata to aquathlon and beach soccer. For weather conditions, Spain fits indeed the propensity to Beach Games we see in temperate countries. Moreover, the local sport federation seized the opportunity to emerge through new sports, as there is little room for booming in winter disciplines as well as in the Olympics, where Spain never reached the top 10 of the medal tally apart from Barcelona 1992.
In contrast, great powers of sport have less incentives to invest in disciplines whose long-term appeal is still far from known. For the basketball homeland, 3x3 may be a second category format. And the American women can enjoy FIFA World Cup success without the need to escape to the sand. Rumors from the sidelines noticed a sort of ‘holiday mood’ around Team USA in Katara Beach, while Spanish and Brazilians were intensely leading the event on and off the field. The precondition of any successful turnaround, sports included.
Video gallery
Let's Talk to the IOC Presidential Candidates
Let's Talk to IOC Presidential Candidate Lord Sebastian Coe
