Terese Cannon still dancing with bronze in Itapema alongside Sarah Sponcil

Two years ago, Terese Cannon planned on dancing had she won her bronze medal match in Itapema. She and Sara Hughes had killed time going over the moves to Footloose. So when the final ball landed, and the bronze medal was assured, they broke it out, to the delight of the thousands of Brazilian fans.

Come 2023, she hadn’t actually planned on dancing post-bronze medal match, yet the on-court emcee had different plans for her and Sarah Sponcil. After a dazzling display in a 21-16, 21-17 Volleyball World Challenge tournament win over Switzerland’s Esmee Bobner and Zoe Verge-Depre, Sponcil and Cannon were expecting the usual post-match interview, the one where athletes are expected to be asked about how they’re feeling, what the mean wins to them, the usual sort.

But there’s nothing usual about beach volleyball in Brazil. This is a country of dancing and emotion and energy and movement, with a sold-out venue and raucous fans. The emcee, no stranger to this atmosphere, knew as much, requesting Sponcil and Terese learn a Brazilian line dance on the spot, in front of thousands.

They were game. Of course they were. They had just won their third medal as a team, 720 points, and $7,000 in prize money. They’d have been game for anything in front of those adoring fans.

“You’re the best fans in the world,” Cannon said. “Thank you so much for watching and cheering. It’s amazing.”

They had plenty to cheer in the match that ensued, with hometown favorites and top seeds Barbara and Carol in the finals with China’s Chen Xue and Xinyi Xia. Yet it was Xue and Xia, in their first tournament as a team, who did the near-impossible, stumping Brazil, in Brazil, in the final, 21-18, 21-17 to win gold.

“We haven’t had a packed stadium in a long time so thank you so much, Brazil,” Sponcil said. “Thank you for your love of volleyball.”

George and Andre, the Kings of Itapema, are inevitable

There is a scene in the Avengers: End Game, in which Thanos, the chief antagonist, moments before he anticipates ending the world as he knows it, tells the Avengers that, despite their best efforts at thwarting him — and indeed they threw far more than the metaphorical kitchen sink his way — he “is inevitable.”

That is a bit what it’s like watching Andre Loyola and George Wanderley play beach volleyball in Itapema, Brazil: Inevitable. Entering this weekend’s Challenge event in Itapema, Andre and George had won two straight gold medals and 12 consecutive matches in Itapema. When extending that streak to events in Brazil in general, which also includes last November’s Uberlandia Elite 16, George and Andre had won 18 straight matches and three gold medals.

Make it 24 matches and four golds now for the Brazilians, who are as inevitable as tomorrow’s sunrise when there’s beach volleyball to be played in Brazil.

While they didn’t have to deal with the likes of, say, Tony Stark or Thor, Andre and George twice had to thwart Andy Benesh and Miles Partain, first in pool play and then in the quarterfinals. They had to rebound from a first-set semifinal loss to Norway’s Hendrik Mol, who finished leading all blockers with 43 blocks, good for an astronomical 3.1 per set. And, in the finals, they had to do what no team had done in Itapema, which is stump France’s top pair of Arnaud Gauthier and Youssef Krou, the world No. 18 coming into the event.

Whatever the world had to throw at George and Andre, it wasn’t enough, and hasn’t been for the past three years. The finals was a demolition, a convincing case that George and Andre’s failure to emerge from the Tepic Elite 16 qualifier was nothing more than a fluke, a 21-16, 21-13 masterclass in beach volleyball. Andre finished with six blocks, George with three aces, and Brazil with yet another gold medal.

“I’m very thankful to Itapema and everyone that takes the time to come to watch us play here,” George said. “I don’t think people understand how much it means for us to see the stands packed every single time we come here to play. We wanted to win this gold medal again to repay all the fans do for us here and hopefully, we’ll be back again next year.”

It was another medal, too, for Scandinavia. Just a few weeks after the all Scandinavian final between Norway and Sweden in Tepic, it was Norway’s Hendrik Mol and Mathias Berntsen on the podium this time, sweeping Cuba in the bronze medal match, 21-19, 21-17, for their second medal as a team.

Up next on the Beach Pro Tour is next weekend’s Saquarema Challenge. You can find the entry list here. 

Travis Mewhirter