Alison and Ludwig top Rio 2016 Olympic performers

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 19, 2016 – After 13 days of competition featuring 108 matches watched by 280,920 spectators with pairs from Germany and Brazil topping the podiums at the 12,000-season “Coliseu on Copacabana”, the last bit of Beach Volleyball business for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games was naming the most outstanding players for the men’s and women’s competition.

Laura Ludwig of Germany and Alison Cerutti of Brazil were named here Friday as the women’s and men’s most outstanding players, respectively, in a vote among media members and FIVB officials for the sixth edition of Beach Volleyball in the “Summer” Games.

Ludwig teamed with Kira Walkenhorst to become the first European women’s pair to win the Olympic gold medal as the fourth-seeded Germans posted a 2-0 (21-18, 21-14) early Thursday morning win in 40 minutes over second-seeded and reigning FIVB world champions Agatha Bednarczuk and Barbara Seixas of Brazil in the finale.

Twenty-four hours later, top-seeded Alison and Bruno Oscar Schmidt validated their 2015 FIVB World Championship gold medal by defeating Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai of Italy 2-0 (21-19, 21-17) in 44 minutes to become Brazil’s second men’s Olympic gold medal winner.  The first was Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos at the Athens 2004 Summer Games.

In guiding her team to a perfect 7-0 record with only one set setback in the women’s competition, Ludwig ranked fourth among all players in digs (76), fifth in service winners (13), eighth in Rio point production (103 points) and 12th in attacks with a 58 percentage (90 of 154).

“It was not about her statistics,” said one veteran media member in casting a vote for Ludwig.  “It was about her leadership on the court with Kira.  She was competing in her …

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