Lausanne, Switzerland, February 14, 2020 – Marta Menegatti may be in line for qualification for Tokyo 2020, for what would be her third Olympic Games, but she knows she can’t relax until her place is secured.
The 30-year-old Italian and partner Viktoria Orsi Toth are 13th in the FIVB Beach Volleyball Olympic Rankings and the top 15 at the end of the Rome 5-Star tournament on June 14 will automatically qualify their country for a berth at Tokyo 2020, with a maximum of two teams per National Olympic Committee (NOC).
At Tokyo 2020 beach volleyball will take place in Shiokaze Park and run from July 25 to August 8.
Right now, Menegatti and Orsi Toth are in Rio where they are enjoying some warm weather training to ensure they are in their best possible shape when they return to action on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.
“We’re at a good point,” Menegatti told Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport. “In January we worked on our fitness and technique, and we are training on our game play with a number of the best teams on the World Tour.
“We have our heads down and are working with humility. We know that the road is long, and we can’t think about where we are right now, but where we want to be and how we’ll get there.”
Menegatti played alongside Greta Cicolari at London 2012 and paired up with Laura Giombini for Rio 2016.
They reached the quarterfinals of the FIVB Tokyo Beach Volleyball Qualification Tournament, where the two winning semifinalists qualified their countries for the Olympic Games.
In 2019 the paired failed to finish on the podium at a World Tour event, but they reached the quarterfinals at the Hamburg 2019 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, Moscow 4-Star and the CEV European Championships to show that they will be as competitive as ever in 2020.
“Each Olympic cycle is different,” Menegatti said. “Let’s not forget that Viki and I only started playing together again a year and a half ago, much later compared to most of the other teams.
“I’d had a difficult season and she’d had two years of not playing. When you think about where we were and where we want to be, I’m proud of our progress.
“This is my hardest Olympic qualification, but also the best because everything it signifies has changed. These have been tough times for both of us, but Viktoria and I are still together and still playing. Tokyo would be fabulous.”