Brazilians crowd Copacabana Beach to watch Olympic beach volleyball games

Brazilians crowd Copacabana Beach to watch Olympic beach volleyball games. August. 18, 2016 07:22. by 리우데자네이루=황규인 기자. “Nothing matters as long as we do well in soccer and beach volleyball.”

Carioca Clara Borges, a local resident in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, said so Tuesday when asked about her country’s poor performances at the Rio Olympics. She was watching on TV the women’s soccer semifinal match between Brazil and Sweden with her friends at a pub located on the Copacabana Beach right next to the Olympic Beach Volleyball Stadium. Brazil lost to Sweden after penalty kicks, failing to advance to the final. People at the pub quickly headed to the Beach Volleyball Stadium.

The stadium was filled with spectators clad in the Brazilian national soccer team’s uniforms. One of them, Camila Mel, stressed that while the United States says it invented beach volleyball, the Copacabana Beach is the place where the spirit of beach volleyball lives.

It is not easy to get a beach volleyball ticket. At the Saturday match, scalpers’ tickets for front seats exceeded 1,500 reals (467 U.S dollars). The Olympic organizing committee also assigned women’s matches to the 11:59 p.m. time slot to woo more fans to the stadium.

The results of the day’s beach volleyball semifinals met Brazilian fans’ wishes. In men’s category, the Alison Cerutti-Bruno Oscar Schmidt duo made it to the final, as did the Ágatha Bednarczuk - Barbara Seixas team did in the women’s category. U.S. player Kerri Walsh Jennings said, “I love Brazil’s fans, even if they’re not rooting for me. They bring out our best.” She had aimed at a fourth straight gold medal in Olympic beach volleyball but lost to the Brazilians.