21 feb 2023 om 05:10Update: een dag geleden
Beach volleyball players Raïsa Schoon (21) and Katja Stam (24) have quickly stormed into the world top. A medal at next year’s Olympic Games in Paris beckons.
While their teammates have been eating lunch for a long time after the presentation of the Dutch beach volleyball team, Schoon and Stam are still busy talking to the press in the Zuiderpark in The Hague. The increased media attention, fan mail and Instagram followers are the new reality for the Dutch duo.
The couple has also acquired a different status in the sand. In the close-knit beach volleyball world, Schoon and Stam were seen a few years ago as the ‘youngsters’ who are easy to beat. By now everyone is afraid of the two. “Our opponents are increasingly thinking: shit, we have to fight Katja and Raïsa,” says Stam.
The success story started three years ago. Schoon and Stam had only been playing together for half a year when they became Dutch champions on the beach of Scheveningen in 2020 by beating the experienced top duo Sanne Keizer and Madelein Meppelink in the final. The trophy cabinet is now quite full, including three tournament victories and two European Championship medals. Two weeks ago, Schoon and Stam won the first major tournament of the season in Doha.
The key to their success? The click between the two. “We know better and better what we need from each other. In and next to the field,” says Stam. The duo travel together for a third of the year and see each other almost daily for the rest of the time. “Then you have to know when to distance yourself or when to sit down together,” says Stam.
Palmares Schoon/Stam
2021:
2022:
- Zilver, Challenge Tlaxcala
- Goud, Elite 16 Rosarito
- Zilver, Challenge Itapema
- Brons, EK München
- Goud, Elite 16 Parijs
2023:
Unique combination with indoor volleyball
Due to the good performance, the duo feels more and more pressure. “After a tournament we were happy with a fifth place, but at home they expected a medal,” says Schoon with a smile. Her mother Debora Schoon-Kadijk is one of the pioneers of beach volleyball.
Schoon can forget that pressure in the room for a while. Despite her full program in beach volleyball, she is a permanent fixture at Eredivisie club Voltena from Werkendam in Brabant. There are not many volleyball players who are active at a high level on the beach and in the hall, but it works for Schoon.
“Fortunately I’m still young, so the combination is going well for me,” she says with a smile. “I believe playing indoors helps me get better on the beach. Besides that, I just like it.” Beach volleyball is definitely number one. “I do indoor volleyball in my own time. As a kind of study.”
Stam tried to combine the two disciplines until she was eighteen, but lost the connection with her hall team. “I was only there once a week and played the games. That caused some crooked faces within the team.” Stam fills her time outside of beach volleyball with a study of physiotherapy. “And I’m very happy with that choice.”
New figureheads
Schoon and Stam are the new figureheads of Dutch women’s beach volleyball due to their achievements. Among the men, these have been Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen for years. They were the only Dutchmen to win an Olympic medal in beach volleyball (bronze in 2016).
Time to change that, says technical director of the volleyball association Michel Everaert. “We have never been so convinced of our medal chances,” he says of the 2024 Games in Paris.
Where Schoon and Stam only just qualified for the Tokyo Games a year and a half ago, they are now an important asset for that ambitious goal.
“Despite those high expectations, fun must remain our basis for the next year and a half,” says Stam. “If the fun disappears, then it becomes a must,” adds Schoon. “Now it is still allowed and we would like to keep it that way.”
Kwalificatie Olympische Spelen 2024
- In totaal doen er 24 teams mee aan het olympisch beachvolleybaltoernooi.
- Gastland Frankrijk is al zeker van één ticket.
- De winnaar van het WK van 2023 mag deelnemen aan de Spelen.
- Zeventien teams worden gekwalificeerd met behulp van een ‘olympische ranglijst’. Deze wordt samengesteld op basis van de beste twaalf resultaten van een team tussen 1 januari 2023 en 10 juni 2024. Met de recente toernooiwinst in Doha zijn Schoon en Stam op dit moment de koplopers.
- De laatste vijf tickets zijn voor de winnaars van continentale olympische kwalificatietoernooien.