21/03/2016 10:33
Indoor Olympic gold medallist and beach World Tour champ shows up on snow
2016 CEV Snow Volleyball European Tour
Wagrain-Kleinarl, Austria, March 21, 2016. During the second stop of the 2016 CEV Snow Volleyball European Tour the snow courts in Wagrain-Kleinarl were graced by the presence of a Volleyball and Beach Volleyball legend. 1992 Volleyball Olympic champion with the team of Brazil and 2001 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour champion Alexandre Ramos Samuel, better known as Tande, was really keen to give Snow Volleyball a try as well.
Tande arrived in the Austrian Alps in his current role of a TV reporter and commentator. He and his crew are filming a documentary about Snow Volleyball for his weekly sports show Esporte Espetacular (“Spectacular Sport”) on the Brazilian television network Globo. “I told my producer that there is Snow Volleyball. ‘Where?’ he asked. ‘In Austria? You should go!’ - and here I am,” explains Tande.
The legendary player has been working in this role since 2011 and while he is taking his job completely seriously, he also seemed to be enjoying himself tremendously in the gorgeous surroundings of the Alps at about 1,900 metres above sea level in Wagrain-Kleinarl – a nice change from the 40-degree temperatures they have been experiencing in Brazil lately.
“It is fantastic! The mountain, the people, the atmosphere – it is fantastic!” exclaims Tande. “The people are outside skiing; they stop by the courts, take pictures; some of them sit at the restaurant and watch the games while enjoying their meals with some wine in a great atmosphere. Everybody is just having fun. This is a fantastic possibility to expand Volleyball by spreading it onto the snowy mountain peaks of the world and also by making it a part of the Winter Olympics.”
As if the reasons to party in the Austrian Alps were not already more than enough and as if Tande was not already the centre of attention at the venue of this CEV Snow Volleyball European Tour event, it also turned out that on the final day in Wagrain-Kleinarl he celebrated his 46th birthday. So it was time for a major treat – a game of Snow Volleyball. Between the women’s and the men’s final matches Tande took some of his heavier clothing off and, cheered on by the numerous spectators at centre court, teamed up with Austrian player Florian Schnetzer, who was to be crowned ‘King of the Snow’ just moments later, and faced up to the freshly-emerged ‘Queens of the Snow’ - Michaela Bertalanitsch from Germany and Marta Swiechowska from Poland, in a short and friendly show match.
For Tande this surely was a birthday party to remember. However, he admitted that Snow Volleyball is not all-party, but also a very difficult sport: “Sometimes you see the snow on the ground and it looks soft, so you dive for the ball, but then your hands are totally cold. But that’s OK – I love it!”
Florian Schnetzer was totally excited about the chance to play shoulder to shoulder with such a renowned sports personality: “His movement is not as flexible as it was some years ago, but it was a big pleasure for me to play some balls with this really, really impressive man with a great personality. To play on the court with an Olympic gold medallist is something I will not forget.”
After the show, Tande himself summed it up nicely: “In my life there is Volleyball, there is Beach Volleyball, and now there is Snow Volleyball!”
Click here or further information and visit also the official website www.snowvolleyball.com and the Instagram account @snowvolleyball
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