Smith & Stoklos Become First FIVB Gold Medal Winners
LAUSANNE, Switzerland, February 22, 2021 - The second memorable
moment in the history of sanctioned FIVB beach volleyball events
occurred Monday of this week when Americans Sinjin Smith and
Randy Stoklos won their first of 10 World Tour gold medals at
the inaugural tournament 34 years ago in Brazil.
“Needless to say,” Stoklos started to say about the first
sanctioned international beach volleyball event on iconic
Ipanema beach. “It was our first time playing in an unruly
atmosphere with centre court packed with Brazilian fans that
wanted their country to be No. 1.”
To reach the final on February 22, 1987, in an event that
attracted 20 teams from seven countries, Smith and Stoklos
opened with a win over an Italian pair (Andrea Ghiurghi/Massimo
Penteriani) before defeating three Brazilian teams featuring
renowned indoor players Renan Dal Zotto, Jose Montanaro and
Bernard Rajzman.
“I also remember so vividly playing with the people that were
excited to see us play,” said Stoklos, “but remember, this was
the first time they had Americans come down to their soil and
they wanted to see them lose. And so, there wasn't a lot of
great favours going in our way.”
In their fifth and final match, Smith and Stoklos prevailed over
compatriots Karch Kiraly and Pat Powers in a two-set sideout
scoring affair (12-9, 12-5). The four United States teams in the
competition compiled a 13-2 record against the international
teams highlighted by nine wins in 11 matches against Brazilian
pairs.
As for playing against Kiraly and Powers in the final, Stoklos
said he “played Karch so many times in my life and we played
together at UCLA, it's really hard to remember anything about
that match. Karch playing with anybody was a grueling effort, to
say the least. I think he felt, as we did, the heat and the
humidity basically were the deciding and determining factor of
really how it all came down. And I think that possibly Sinjin
and I were in a little bit better shape.”
Stoklos remembers “how incredibly organised the event was. It
was incredible to see the lines of fans out the door of the
hotel that we were staying in on the beach. They were like ants
in a line trying to get in. And what was really interesting is,
is that everybody went through like a little mini house to get
their Camisa (t-shirts) to promote the sponsors. Everybody was
wearing the yellow-coloured Camisa.”
After winning 43 of their first 78 tournaments on the American
domestic tours since forming their partnership in July 1982, the
Ipanema gold started another string of successes for Smith and
Stoklos, who never finished lower than fourth in their 12 FIVB
World Tour starts together.
“Since the FIVB had obviously run indoor events, they knew
exactly what they were getting into,” said Stoklos about the
first event. “The backdrop of the first event being in Rio de
Janeiro on Ipanema beach with more than 10,000 people inside of
the stadium was just an incredible sight to behold.”
Stoklos said he and Smith “had gotten to Rio a week early just
to try to get acclimated to the weather because of the heat and
the humidity. As we practised, we saw the building of the
stadium out of pipes and wood. It was incredibly made, and they
knew exactly what they did. And one of the other things that
stood out in my mind was the water cannon that they had out
there. The temperatures at all the Rio events were extremely
hot, and the water spraying the sands, in the crowd, it was just
a sight to behold. And really an incredible time for not only
Sinjin, or myself, but for the whole sport.”
A five-time winner with Smith in Rio, Stoklos noted that the
“inviting aspect of the event was it was billed as the world
championships. We were going down there to represent our
country. And needless to say, there was some prize money
involved.”
Stoklos also remembered coming back home and going through
customs where he was asked what he did in Brazil. “I told the
customs that we were playing in the world championship and we
won, and we had this big trophy,” Stoklos noted. “And the guy
said well, welcome back to the United States and
congratulations. So, we didn’t have to deal with any of the
money aspects of things.”
When asked what made his partnership with Smith successful as
the pair won 114 domestic and international events together,
Stoklos said “Sinjin as a defensive player was incredibly good
around my block. My blocking put a lot of pressure on the
opposition which gave opportunities for us to score. And we
continued to always put pressure on our opponents.”
Stoklos also said his jump serve was “a weapon to get the teams
off balance. I only realised how good Sinjin and I really were
when I retired, and we played an exhibition together and in the
first play Sinjin digs four balls and I block a ball and we
scored the point. And there was just this magic of the salt and
pepper and everything else coming together to make this
ingredient.”
In remembering the inaugural international beach volleyball
tournament in Rio, Stoklos said the event “really was the first
ingredient that made it an Olympic sport. It was the ingredient
that propelled it to be a world tour. And you see how many
people around the world are playing the game across their
country because of that beginning.” |