The must-see venue of the Paris Olympic Games has made beach volleyball the accidental must-do sport here. All you really need to know is that it’s called the Eiffel Tower stadium. They’re three words that paint a picture.
Of course, it’s not really a stadium. It’s so temporary that when the crowd danced and clapped at a change of ends, the place shook. The Eiffel Tower stadium has provided one of these Games’ most stunning backdrops.
Credit: Getty Images Matching sights to sites has been the Paris Olympics’ master-stroke and the volleyball stadium is the crème de la crème. Taliqua Clancy, who is originally from Kingaroy in outback Queensland, was literally lost for words. “It’s incredible.
It’s so beautiful, it’s hard to put it into words,” she said. “It’s beautiful.” Being there is one thing, playing there another.
On Thursday night, Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar lost a semi-final to even more exotically named Brazilian pair Ana Patricia Silva Ramos and Eduardo Santos Lisboa in hard-fought, high-quality three sets. Their brave smiles could not mask their burning disappointment. Three years ago, they lost the Tokyo Olympic final to the US.
The top-ranked Americans were bundled out of this tournament in a quarter-final, leaving the gold medal match against Canada wide open. But the Australians will play Switzerland for bronze instead. Artacho del Solar was lost for words in a different way.
“That’s the beauty of sport,” she said. �.