The sensation is perfect: Germany’s volleyball players have qualified for the Olympic Games for the first time since 2012.
In the tournament for tickets for Paris 2024, the team around star attacker Georg Grozer won 3-0 (25:15, 25:20, 25:16) in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday (October 7th, 2023/local time). Qatar’s sixth win in their sixth game. This means that the selection of the German Volleyball Association can no longer be pushed out of one of the top two places in the group of eight and can plan for the Olympics.
Grozer: “Could start crying”
With a printed ticket for Paris in his hand, the Olympic rings on a cap and an almost incredulous smile on his lips, Grozer stood in front of the dressing room after the victory. The 38-year-old was overwhelmed: “I could cry at any second. It’s an incredible feeling. You should never give up believing in your dreams. We just did it and now we’re going to Paris.” Grozer recently returned to the national team to make another attempt at the Olympics and was the outstanding player of the tournament. Anton Brehme (14) scored the most points against Qatar.
After six wins from six games, including two sensational successes against world champions Italy and hosts Brazil, qualification was already certain before the last group game against Ukraine on Sunday.
Reichert: “As if in a state of intoxication”
“The whole tournament was kind of like a frenzy. We played every game consistently and delivered our performance,” said outside attacker Moritz Reichert early Sunday morning German time. The success was anything but expected. In the disappointing Nations League, Grozer sat out the whole of last summer. But his return to the European Championships did not bring any immediate improvement. To do this, the team had to suppress long-standing unrest in the association and deal with an extremely tight game plan.
But obviously the selection of the German Volleyball Association was at the peak of their creativity at exactly the right moment. “You could already tell during the preparation: there was something in the air.”said outside attacker Erik Röhrs. The fact that the team was able to show that in every game was a good thing “incredible feeling”.