David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig are receiving some of their biggest Olympic competitors on home turf ahead of the games in Paris.
Both the world's number two from Brazil and the world's number three from Germany are coming to Sweden this summer to spar with the Swedish beach volleyball duo.
On Tuesday, a new beach volleyball court was inaugurated at the Swedish Sports Confederation's development centre on Bosön outside Stockholm. Sweden's Olympic hopes David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig played the first balls on the new court, which will be the pair's base in their preparations for the summer games in Paris, where the beach volleyball begins on 27 July.
During the Olympic build-up, 22-year-olds Åhman and Hellvig, reigning European Champions and ranked as world number eight after a successful season on the world tour, will receive visits from two world teams and Olympic competitors.
Both Brazil's George Wanderley and André Stein, ranked second in the world, and Germany's Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler, ranked third, are coming to Sweden to Olympic-prepare on Bosön.
"Super cool"
It's really nice for us to be on home turf for once and not have to travel to other countries to train with good teams. Super cool that more teams want to come here and that we have this court, says David Åhman.
It's a very good opportunity for us to get an even higher level of competition, says national team coach and trainer Rasmus Jonsson.
The exact dates for when the pairs George/André and Ehlers/Wicklers will come to Sweden are not clear. There are also two world tour events in July before the Olympics, in Gstaad, Switzerland, and Vienna, Austria.
World Championship silver in October
They are waiting for confirmation from their Olympic committees and need to undergo medical examinations. But it's booked that they're coming, says Jonsson.
Jacob Hölting Nilsson and Elmer Andersson, who a couple of weeks ago took U22 European Championship gold for Sweden, will be an additional training and sparring partner for Åhman/Hellvig, World Championship silver medallists in October, on Bosön ahead of the Olympics.
We're doing mostly training, but we're keeping it match-like. We're playing against each other, but then maybe we don't count best of three to twenty-one, but do something else. But we'll see, maybe we'll play a training match against them too, says Jonatan Hellvig.
