Rio Olympics : Beach Volleyball

Cuba!  Cuba!

Ask anyone to name a quintessentially Brazilian sport and they'll probably say... football.  But then, everybody plays football, and it's not like I haven't seen my share of games.  So here I am instead on Copacabana beach for the beach volleyball - it doesn't get much more Brazilian, surely.  Good to see the beach, it's a Rio landmark after all, and I've figured out how to get a vaguely cycle-friendly route from google onto my GPS, all good.  Time for a not too expensive beer on the beach, and then sport.

The arena is a temporary structure built on the beach itself, seems solid enough, I'm sure the random nut and bolt I find near my seat are nothing to worry about.  Good view from here, and four games to watch, men first as Latvia take on Cuba, that seem pretty evenly matched, and there's clearly a lot of skill in this game, for all the jokes about the bikini-clad female players.  The Latvians throw away a lead in the first set, then raise their game to take the second, but it seems to tire them, Cuba winning the third set, and the match, convincingly.

What the crowd are here for.

It's the main event next, Brazil's women v. the USA, the arena is filling up, although there are still a lot of empty seats.  Good atmosphere though, the crowd sings along with the band, chants 'paredão' (block) when appropriate, and we all do a Mexican wave or two.  And it's close, the locals are the favourites in every sense, but the norteamericanas are putting up a good fight.  But the Brazilians are too strong for them in the end and Larissa and Talita win in straight sets, much to the delight of the home crowd.  Many of whom leave soon after, for all that there are two games remaining.

And the band played...

Poland and Holland in the men's competition first, both seem pretty good despite their countries not being famed for beach culture - I suspect being a nation of tall people, as the Dutch certainly are, helps with this.  And the Poles are pretty good too, thinking about it they like their handball in eastern Europe, guess it's not that different.  It finishes up two sets to one in favour of the Dutch.  Last up, more ladies, Germany v. Canada, this is pretty one sided as the Germans are very good.  It's another straight sets win, goes down well with what remains of the local crowd - Germany seems to be a popular country over here, a legacy of waves of immigrants who helped build this rainbow nation, and did things like found breweries.  I particularly like the restaurant chain whose name means 'the German's house', which displays a sign 'since 1945'.

It's another 'in the venue' selfie.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.