Former NBA player Chase Budinger and his partner Trevor Crabb qualified for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles on Sunday by winning the Norceca Championships in San Juan, Puerto Rico, according to bild.de.
The continental championships for North and Central America and the Caribbean awarded the winning duo a quota spot for the Games, bild.de reported.
The American pair defeated Mexico’s Carlos Andres and Inés Vargas Lares in a three-set final with scores of 17:21, 21:16, and 19:17, according to bild.de.
Both Mexican players are 20 years old, while Budinger is 38 and Crabb is 37, bild.de noted.
For Budinger, the qualification marks his second Olympic appearance in beach volleyball, bild.de reported.
He competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics beneath the Eiffel Tower alongside former partner Miles Evans, reaching the round of 16 before falling to Norway’s Anders Mol and Christian Sørum, according to bild.de.
Budinger and Crabb secured their biggest joint success earlier this year by winning a silver medal at the Elite 16 tournament in Gstaad, Switzerland, bild.de reported.
The event ranks among the highest category of international beach volleyball competition, according to bild.de.
Budinger was selected 44th overall in the 2009 NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons and immediately traded to the Houston Rockets, bild.de reported.
Standing 2.01 meters tall, he also played for the Minnesota Timberwolves, Indiana Pacers, and Phoenix Suns, recording a career-high 30 points in 2011 before ending his basketball career with Spanish club Baskonia in 2017 to transition to the sand, according to bild.de.
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