Olympic Games in Paris: Silver joy grows for beach duo: LA as new destination

The day after their crushing defeat in the final at the Olympics, German beach volleyball players Clemens Wickler and Nils Ehlers had found their sense of humor again. Is the Hamburg duo now looking to Los Angeles 2028 together? “We’ll have to sit down together again after the season and see what the other one is up to,” Ehlers told Eurosport, only to then clarify: “We left a little room for improvement with the gold medal. Accordingly, we have a new goal in mind, I would say.”

The two of them wanted to enjoy their last day in Paris – as long as their tiredness allowed. “Neither of us slept much last night, so we’re a bit exhausted. But we’ll try to enjoy it one more time today,” said Wickler.

As the two of them ran through a line of family and friends in the Paris night, their smiles briefly returned. Not far from the spectacular stadium at the Eiffel Tower, they and their silver medal were celebrated in a restaurant. The pain of their defeat in the final at the Olympics is likely to linger for the Hamburg team for a while, however.

“We didn’t get into the game at all, and unfortunately we played our worst game of the season in the final,” said Berlin-born Ehlers, still clearly dismayed, immediately after the game. “With a little distance, we can be really happy about second place, about the performances we showed in Paris,” said Wickler on Sunday.

The head was not playing along

The Hamburg team marched into the final in the French capital with impressive performances. But in the 0:2 (10:21, 13:21) defeat against the young world number one players from Sweden, David Ahman/Jonatan Hellvig, almost nothing worked. “Maybe they wanted too much. They had their eyes on gold and then their heads went completely blank,” Wickler tried to explain.

During the warm-up, he had the best feeling of the entire tournament. “And then we go out onto the field and everything is completely gone. Legs are completely heavy. There was definitely something that happened to us mentally,” said the 29-year-old.

The many German fans saw many serving errors, misunderstandings and other wobbles. The Swedes didn’t even have to resort to their special jumping passes very often. It was enough for them to play in a controlled manner and without making many mistakes.

“It hurts unbelievably badly, because not being able to focus on the stage and perform like that is very, very disappointing and really knocks you down,” said 30-year-old Ehlers.

The goal was ambitious

Many supporters had travelled from home and had to travel long distances. Wickler said he was extremely sorry that they saw such a performance. “But when I see how proud most of the German fans are of us, it helps me to be proud of our performance,” said the 29-year-old.

The partners had set themselves an ambitious goal of winning a medal when they formed their team in 2022. The fact that they ended up winning silver is the greatest success of their careers and quite surprising.

The next tournament is coming soon

The duo sees themselves continuing to move up. Ehlers spoke of an extremely important learning experience. Wickler was combative: “If we have the opportunity to have a similar final again at some point, we will do better.”

The Hamburg team doesn’t have much time to celebrate their silver or be annoyed about their missed opportunity because of their international schedule. The European Championships in the Netherlands begin for them on Wednesday.

And at some point the long-term goal of the 2028 Olympic Games in the USA will also come into focus. “I can already say something, Clemens. I don’t know who else I would play with. You’re a pretty cool guy. So if you’re up for it, we might play together for the next few years,” said Ehlers. “I’m still thinking about it. No, just kidding,” the 29-year-old joked back.