Wagrain-Kleinarl, Austria, March 22, 2018. Snow Volleyball is a truly unique opportunity for people of all ages and backgrounds to try and play the game – and Wagrain-Kleinarl provided the perfect stage for more than 400 children to do so on a chilly, yet sunny Thursday morning, only 24 hours away from the start of the first-ever, historic CEV Snow Volleyball European Championship.
Wagrain-Kleinarl is the real ‘birthplace’ of Snow Volleyball since it is right here where the first Volleyball matches on snow took place back in 2008. Ten years later, the breath-taking venue set up at the top of the Flying Mozart station – including the iconic Salzburg Snow Space Arena accommodating up to 600 fans – is rightfully enjoying the privilege to crown the first-ever Snow Volleyball European champions.
However, before the top teams in Europe – 24 per gender from as many as 18 countries – take to the courts on Friday morning, 400 kids from all over the Salzburger Land had a great time along with 15 coaches sharing their knowledge of the game and making sure the children will feel and learn what Volleyball is all about.
t has become some kind of a tradition in Wagrain-Kleinarl that any Snow Volleyball event starts with a Kids Day – and some children have already returned for three or four years in a row already. Overall, the clinic involved more than 400 kids aged 3 to 16 from as many as 10 schools, with a focus on participants aged 6 to 10. Austria’s Beach and Snow Volleyball stars Florian Schnetzer and Daniel Müllner were among the coaches leading the clinic, together with the official #EuroSnowVolley ambassadors, 2013 European Beach Volleyball champion Stefanie Schwaiger and former Brazilian Beach Volleyball star, Pedro Cunha.
Switzerland’s Raphael Zurgilgen and Remo Spahr spontaneously joined in as well after finding their way to the #EuroSnowVolley venue on Thursday morning already to get a first taste of how it feels like to play on Austrian snow. Spahr is a truly interesting character – he has been playing Volleyball, Beach Volleyball and Snow Volleyball along with American Football. “I train harder and more than anyone else,” he said but he obviously has a big heart as well looking at how genuinely he enjoyed his time with the kids.
Pedro Cunha, a 2012 Olympian in Beach Volleyball with legendary Ricardo Santos and winner of the FIVB Grand Slam in Klagenfurt in 2011, was happy with the experience: “It is my first time playing Volleyball on the snow as I never did that before but I am absolutely enjoying it. I seem to have fallen in love with it from the very first moment.” Stefanie Schwaiger, on the other hand, looks forward to the coming days as well: “It has been an absolutely wonderful experience to spend some quality time with these children and I now look forward to the start of the tournament, hoping that a big crowd will come together and will be supporting the athletes competing here.”
The kids received a voucher inviting them to attend Sunday’s semi-final and medal matches. If they do so, they will receive an exclusive gift – an official t-shirt to take home as a souvenir from the first-ever Snow Volleyball European Championship.
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