Despite the withdrawal of figureheads Hüberli/Brunner due to injury, two Swiss duos will be competing in the main draw of the Elite 16 beach volleyball tournament in Gstaad this week.
The main rehearsal for the Olympic beach volleyball tournament will take place from Thursday to Sunday in the Bernese Oberland. Paris is also at the back of many people's minds, either because they want to gain confidence for the season's highlight or because they want to console themselves for a disappointment in Gstaad with one of the cowbells as a prize.
Anouk Vergé-Dépré and Joana Mäder belong to the second category. The bronze medallists from Tokyo 2021 missed out on qualifying for the Summer Games after Mäder suffered a serious shoulder injury two years ago because they were only the third-best Swiss women's duo. They had to go through the qualifiers in Gstaad and passed them with flying colors on Wednesday.
Two wildcards, two qualifiers
Anouk Vergé-Dépré's sorrow was the joy of her younger sister Zoé. She will be traveling to the Olympic Games for the first time in three weeks with Esmée Böbner and can now test her form. The rising stars of the year received a wild card for the main draw in Gstaad, as did the best Swiss men's duo Marco Krattiger/Florian Breer.
The men are not represented in Paris, but in Gstaad, somewhat surprisingly, a second duo will be taking part after Adrian Heidrich and Leo Dillier also qualified for the tournament. However, the best Swiss women Tanja Hüberli and Nina Brunner will be missing after Hüberli suffered a lumbago. They don't want to take any risks before the Olympics.
Saturday already sold out
The atmosphere in the Saanenland should once again be great. Saturday is already sold out, although the capacity of the spectator stands at Center Court has been increased by over 300 seats. If you want to be there, you can only do so with a weekly pass.
Perhaps the great atmosphere will once again inspire the Swiss, who have mostly struggled in recent years. The last podium finish by Simone Kuhn/Nadine Zumkehr was twelve years ago, the only victory to date even two decades ago. Patrick Heuscher and Stefan Kobel triumphed in 2004.
SDA