Beach volleyball's debut in the Olympics this summer will showcase its star player and his bad-boy partner.
In the final day of Olympic beach volleyball trials, top-seeded Karch Kiraly and partner Kent Steffes seized the final spot on the 1996 American men's team by pounding Adam Johnson and injured partner Randy Stoklos 15-3.On Saturday, Steffes was informed of Stolkos' sprained right ankle and said, "Good. Maybe he broke it." Given the chance Sunday, Steffes did not retract or amend his statement.
Stoklos landed on an errant volleyball while practicing a jump serve before Saturday's match against Mike Dodd and Mike Whitmarsh, and it was heavily taped for Sunday's match. He said the ankle didn't hurt but did limit his jumping and mobility.
"I heard what he had said. That's just Kent Steffes," said Stoklos, 36, who saw his only chance at the Olympics disappear. Kiraly, a two-time Olympic gold-medalist in indoor volleyball, said this week's qualifying was more difficult than making the U.S. squad in 1984 and 1988.
"I feel like we've been here 10 years," Kiraly said.
He put on a show with a diving spike at 12-2 and scored the next point after digging Stoklos' attack out of the sand.
"It's really unfortunate that luck ran against him (Stoklos)," Kiraly said. "That's terrible timing and it's unfortunate in another sense because thanks to a qualification system I still don't agree with, that's a great team, Randy and Adam, and I believe they would be a wonderful third representative at the Olympics."
Kiraly is strongly opposed to the automatic bids awarded to Sinjin Smith and Carl Henkel. Dodd and Whitemarsh got the third Olympic spot.
The women's final featured a confrontation of ex-partners, and Gail Castro and Deb Richardson secured the last slot on the U.S. team by outlasting Elaine Roque and Dennie Shupryt-Knoop 15-13. Castro played with Roque for three years on the women's pro tour while Richardson and Shrupryt-Knoop were teammates for a year and a half.
Barbra Fontana Harris and Linda Hanley qualified this weekend on the women's side and Holly McPeak and Nancy Reno got the automatic spot based on results from the international FIVB circuit.