Sisters in mind
It′s not a seldom case when sisters play as a team in beach volleyball. We talked with most rated duos of Swatch FIVB World Tour, got rare photograph of sisters teams and satisfy ourself that bonds of relations is sometning special.
"IT′S HARD TO PLAY AGAINST EACH OTHER"
Twins: Natalja Bratuhhina - Polina Bratuhhina
Age: 23 years old
Country: Estonia
World rank: 101
Higher achievement: 33-th place on World Series 13 Open (France), 2010
It′s not easy to find some information in web about Bratuhhina sisters from Narva, Estonia. They not high rated beach vollyballists, yes, but main reason of information deficit is a media silence about top estonian duo in their homeland. "Sand storm" blog filled that media void letting Polina Bratuhhina to say a few words.
"When we started to play beach volley in 2004 we had many conflicts between each other. It′s important because we knew that gonna make a peace in one-two hours quarrel. That is what we couldn′t make with another, "non-sister" partners.
We played together two years on youth tournaments and estonian national competitions, and did it well. In 2006 our sponsor decided to separate us in different teams. Nothing layed in our power. But we reunited again before international competitions: for example U-21 world championship, Modena, 2007 (5-th place).
After few years we understud that we must play with nobody else, but each other. We are very quick in the uptake, definetly know what and when to say to each other. If there is some misunderstanding, we quickly work out a problems. And the most important: it′s very hard to play against each other, so we going to try to do not do it again. We are a single whole, sharing emotions in victories and defeats."
"WE ARE LIKE A MARRIED COUPLE"
Sisters: Erika Fabjan - Simona Fabjan
Age: 24 and 22 years
Country: Slovenia
World rank: 38
Higher achievement: 13-th place on Seoul Open (South Korea), 2010
Fabjan sisters - to be onest - have an modest results in Swatch FIVB World Tour, but they are real media stars in their homeland, small Slovenia. They take a part on TV-shows, radio and photo sessions. On that picture Erika and Simona working in advertisement project.
"We′ve started in very interesting way. When we studyed in primary school, we played volleyball just for fun. One day our sports teacher, ask us if we want to play school beachvolleyball national turnament. And we said why not let′s it try just for fun. Among all girls from all Slovenia, who were practicing volleyball already few years, we′ve won the turnament.
So sports teacher ask us if we want to try to train in a real club indoor volleyball. And so we start. Durig the winter we play indoor, but we always were looking forward to summer and beach volleyball. We always prefer beach. Two years ago (i think it was May) we went to danish beach camp in Alanya, Turkey. There we met danish national coach and he invite us to join them during the winter. After long thinking we decide to leave indoor and grab that chance that we get. So everything start with beach and hopefully end with beach.
We are "married" on Facebook. We like to joke that we are like an old married couple. We are all the time together since i was born, so 22 years now!", - told Simona Fabjan to "Sand storm" blog.
"WE WERE FOOTBALLERS"
Twins: Erika Nystrom - Emilia Nystrom
Age: 27 years
Country: Finland
World rank: 15
Higher achievement: 5-th places on Brazil Open, 1 to 1 Energy Grand Slam (Switzerland) and Mazury Orlen Grand Slam (Poland), 2010
Nystrom twins from Finland are already were on "Sand storm" blog pages. They are about seven years old on thit rare photo but you can appreciate at it′s true value their beauty now in this article.
"We started to play together football when we were like 14. And after we went to volleyball 15 years old. We were good in our age in indoor in Finland, but we wanted more challenge and we started to play beach 16 years old. We were sport high school and after this we started to play as professionals and only go around the world.
First time we left to live abroad 2004 to Greece and there we are still. We have greek coach and have been living 5 years in Athens. Our best summer was the last one: 3-rd place in European championship and three times 5-th place Swatch FIVB World Tout 2010.
We have played all our years together, so we are one of the oldest team in FIVB! Erika is older sister and captain of our team. She is blocker and Im defender. We have some defference in game... Im faster!" - and here Emilia puted a big :P smile.
"STEFFI MIGHT TO BE A COOK"
Sisters: Doris Schwaiger - Stefanie Schwaiger
Age: 26 and 24 years
Country: Austria
World rank: 8
Higher achievement: 2-nd place on Otera Open (Norway), 2009 and 2-nd place on World Series 13 Open (France), 2010
She is sitting in perambulator but already wear sun-glasses! Austrian duo of Schwaiger sisters was in our TOP-10 article as they have 8 place in Swatch FIVB World Tour. There will be more news in "Sand storm" blog about Schwaiger sisters next season, no doubt about it.
"Steffi and I have two younger brothers, and we live in a small village with, probably, more animals than people. But a very nice village. We started play volleyball at 10 years (indoor) in school, and at the beginning steffi didn´t like it at all. She also visited cooking courses at school, and she had to choose later between cooking and volleyball.
But finally she started to like it, and volleyball became our greatest hobby after school. We played every free minute. Even when it was raining we played against wall in livingroom. And now we are here playing on World Tour, making our greatest hobby a job.
Apart from playing volleyball, we are very different types of people: one getting up very early in the morning, one very late, one is very picky, while the other is very tolerant. Our hobbies: Steffi - horses, me - garden" - said Doris Schwaiger to "Sand storm" blog.
"A SISTER MAKES MY LIFE HAPPIER"
Sisters: Maria Clara Salgado - Carolina Salgado
Age: 27 and 23 years
Country: Brazil
World rank: 6
Higher achievement: 1-st place on Myslowice Open (Poland), 2008
Salgado sisters are the last and most successful in our review article. That intimissy what Maria Salgado showed in her story for "Sand storm" blog, will never let you to stay indifferent...
"Everybody always ask us how is it - to play with your sister.
The most important thing for us is that we play together not because we are sisters. We do it because we trust in our work together and in our team! Since the beggining, when we were really young and together with my mom (she was our coach) shared this idea, we didn′t want to confuse this thing of playing together with sister and being trained for mother. We always believed that we could reach the TOP-3 of Brazilian tour if we worked a lot and after this we want to reach a TOP of World Tourt ranking.
So to get that goal we′ve work really hard. And after such a long time together i think we learned a lot how to use our intimissy in a good way. Of course, that′s we are so close, there might be a more conflicts as usual, because we speak about everything, and all problems go deeper. Even small problems like sister problems! But i think this is the good part aswell - we never leave the problem behind and pretend that it didn′t exist. We fix everything, all the problems quicker then other teams too!
And to share so many moments and important feelings with Carol is so special. Its so nice when we win and look to each other and think: "We did it"! We just got closer and closer with so many moments and travels. Having my sister on the tour makes my life happier for sure! I love her a lot and i know that nowbody wishes me better things than she."
