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Players from USA, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands capture 2012 Men’s FIVB Swatch World Tour season awards
Lausanne, Switzerland, November 3, 2012—Voted to receive three season awards, USA’s Phil Dalhausser along with USA’s Sean Rosenthal and Jake Gibb, Brazil’s Alison, Brazil’s Emanuel with two awards, Germany’s Eric Koreng, Italy’s Paolo Nicolai, Latvia’s Martins Plavins and Netherlands’ Christiaan Varenhorst were all recognized for their play as the post-season awards for the men’s 2012 FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour were announced here today. In voting by players, coaches, referees and official on the popular professional international beach volleyball circuit, USA’s ‘Thin Beast’ Dalhausser was selected as the year’s Best Blocker, Best Offensive Player and Best Setter while compatriot “Lefty” Rosenthal was picked as the 2012 Most Outstanding Player and Rosenthal, 32, and his gritty team-mate Gibb, 36, were selected as the 2012 Team of the Year after winning the 2012 FIVB SWATCH World Tour season point championship. Continuing to add to their season award totals, Brazil’s legendary elder statesman Emanuel was selected as the 2012 Most Inspirational Player and the 2012 Sportsman of the Year while Brazil’s youthful giant Alison was voted as the 2012 Best Hitter of the season. Also basking in the afterglow of another memorable year on the FIVB SWATCH World Tour, Germany’s Koreng was selected Best Server for the second straight year while Italy’s Nicolai was voted the Most Improved Player of 2012, Latvia’s Plavins was picked as the 2012 Best Defensive Player and Netherlands’ Varenhorst was tabbed the 2012 Top Rookie for the tour. USA’s Dalhausser, 32, who has played 58 career FIVB tournaments with Todd Rogers, 39, through this past season, won the best blocker award for the fifth time, the best offensive player for the fourth time, and best setter accolade for the fourth straight year. Dalhausser/Rogers, who were the 2008 Olympic champions, finished the 2012 season with a 44-12 record and a 78.6 winning percentage. In their FIVB career, the Dalhausser/Rogers duo played in 58 tournaments earning 44 final four finishes with 23 gold medals, seven silver medals and 10 bronze medals with FIVB career earnings as a team of $1,422,600. In the process of winning their awards, USA’s Gibb/Rosenthal had a championship season to remember. In their eight best events that qualified them for the season title, the daring duo won two gold medals, two silver medals, one bronze medal, with two fourth place finishes and one fifth. Almost amazingly, in Rome, Italy and Gstaad, Switzerland this summer USA’s Gibb/Rosenthal earned back-to-back gold medal match victories over Brazil’s great Alison/Emanuel. Finishing fifth in the London 2012 Olympic Games, USA’s Gibb/Rosenthal finished the season with a 56-21 overall match record with a 72.7 winning percentage. Always a force to be reckoned with, Brazil’s Alison, 26, and Emanuel, 39, finished 2012 with another impressive match record of 56-11 (83.6 percent) as the youthful 6-8 Alison, was recognized as the world tour’s best hitter for the second straight season while the veteran 6-3 Emanuel, 39, was honored as the as the most inspirational for the second consecutive year and the year’s top sportsman for the third consecutive year. The Brazilian duo won the silver medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Reflecting philosophically regarding his triple awards, USA’s Dalhausser said, “It’s a great thing to have this kind of respect from your peers especially when you know you had a pretty tough season with a bitter disappointment being upset in the Olympics and only finishing in ninth place. Todd and I have had several great seasons together and he has earned his ‘professor’ nickname teaching me so much over all these years. I wouldn’t have been in a position to earn these awards if I hadn’t learned the lessons that Todd has taught me and I thank him for all his has done to help me take my game to a higher level.” In addition to all world tour events being internationally televised, also on-site at each event, including the 2012 FIVB SWATCH Youth and the 2012 FIVB SWATCH Junior World Championships was a special production crew from IMG, the company that not only produces the live international telecasts of select matches at each tournament, but also the weekly FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour highlight show that is syndicated throughout the world. The 2012 calendar featured 12 women's and 11 men's events within all five FIVB confederations on the FIVB SWATCH World Tour plus the London 2012 Olympic Games which saw Germany’s Julius Brink/Jonas Reckermann win the men’s gold medal at London’s Horse Guards Parade. The 2012 FIVB SWATCH World Tour offered $6.13-million in prize money. Nine of the tournaments were combined men's and women's events, and there were a record eight Grand Slam stops. The men’s tour concluded in August in Stare Jablonki, Poland. There have been 282 men’s and 244 women’s events in the history of the FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour (open, grand slam, Olympic and Goodwill). The first men’s FIVB SWATCH World Tour event was played February 17-22, 1987 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the first women’s event was played August 14-16, 1992 at Almeria, Spain. For more information on the 2012 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour, please visit www.fivb.org. All-Time Men's FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour Award Winners Best Blocker Best Defensive Player Best Hitter Best Offensive Player Best Server Best Setter Most Improved Player Most Inspirational Sportsman Team of the Year Top Rookie All-Time Men’s FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour Points Champions
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