Tania Moreno and Daniela Álvarez are already One of the greatest sports discoveries for Spanish fans that these 2024 Paris Olympic Games have brought. This Madrid native and this Asturian, respectively, have managed at 22 years of age to qualify Spain for the quarter-finals for the first time in an Olympic event. This Wednesday they will compete against the Canadian couple, Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson, for a place in the semi-finals.
Their victory in the round of 16 against the Dutch Katia Stam and Raisa Schoon by 2-1 (18-21, 21-19 and 15-13) gives them the opportunity to, as they and their technical team say, “play at the foot of the Eiffel Tower for a dream”.
Canadians are seventh in the world rankingsbeat Americans Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth in the quarterfinals by 2-0 (21-19 and 21-18) and until now they have never faced the Spaniards face to face.
“We know that we have an opportunity that has never been presented before in the history of Spanish beach volleyball and we are very excited,” Moreno admits.
“We have never faced Brandi and Melissa. It is a team with a lot of potential that has been on the podium of many top-level tournaments. It is going to be a very hard-fought match, where we have to give 100% of our best and also enjoy it, because, after all, it is the quarter-finals. And that part also has to be taken into account,” adds the Madrid native.
Alvarez did have the opportunity to face one of the Canadians on one occasion. However, she rules out a particular strategy based on the rivals: “We don’t approach these matches any differently. “This is what we face in a normal tournament on the world circuit. Before each match we always analyse the video of our opponents, we analyse our game, we analyse how to play them and we are not doing anything different here,” he says.
