On the spot in Paris, David Åhman, 23, and Jonatan Hellvig, 23, did not quite understand what they had gotten themselves into.
The Olympic Games gold in August last year created a huge interest – both for the duo itself and for beach volleyball as a sport.
It was hard to understand how many people were watching the Olympic Games. The time right after was stopped all the time. People wanted to take pictures and congratulate us, says Jonatan Hellvig, ahead of this weekend's World Tour event in Malmö.
”Exploded”
The number of athletes has increased, but at the same time, beach volleyball has not been able to take advantage of the increased interest.
We live in the North. If we had lived somewhere where we had summer for 10 months a year, it would have exploded, says Anders Kristiansson, who, together with Rasmus Jonsson, is the star duo's coach.
The number of indoor halls for beach volleyball is extremely few in Sweden.
We probably have around 50 indoor courts in Sweden, but it's distributed over 7-8 halls. There are still opportunities to play beach volleyball year-round in Sweden, but it's not possible to get all those who want to play into these halls, says Simon Dahl, secretary general of the Swedish Volleyball Federation.
Our "boom" is very, very small compared to what it could potentially be. It's just growing, but outdoor activities are only three months, says Anders Kristiansson.
There are only two really big halls in the country with many courts. One is in Gothenburg – the other in Huddinge.
They are privately run and must make money. The money is with 35-year-olds who are hobby coaches. Then it's hard to schedule times for youth activities, says Kristiansson and continues:
The product beach volleyball for the general public is great, but the conditions for getting it out to young people are poor.
”Not played beach volleyball”
Even if an indoor hall is small, it can have great significance. This can be testified by Olympic Games gold medalist David Åhman.
I probably wouldn't have played beach volleyball in Umeå if there hadn't been a "beach hall". It would have been quite difficult to train for most of the year. The hall was very important for me, he says and continues:
It's not big, it's four courts. But it's at least – then there are at least conditions to train indoors.
Daniel Kihlström/TT
Facts: World Tour in Malmö
TT
The tournament in beach volleyball's World Tour in Malmö is a so-called futures – the third and lowest level. "Elite" is the highest level and "challenge" is the next highest level.
Only men compete in Malmö and Olympic Games champions David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig are the highest ranked pair in the tournament. The Swedes are currently world-class and normally only compete in elite-level tournaments.
The duo Jacob Hölting Nilsson and Elmer Andersson are the second-highest ranked team, ranked 16 in the world.
Total of 16 teams play the main tournament, of which 12 are directly qualified.
On Thursday, the qualifying round will be played, where four teams can qualify for the main tournament, which will be played from Friday to Sunday.
Group runners-up and third-place teams play the round of 16. First-place teams go directly to the quarterfinals.
The tournament will be played from Thursday to Sunday. The matches will be played on a built arena on Ribersborgsstranden with space for around 1,000 spectators. It's sold out for both Saturday and Sunday.
