--- title: "Latvia’s Martins Plavins \u0026 Kristians Fokerots win men’s gold at Rio de Janeiro Elite; first-ever Elite gold for Plavins and Fokerots" sdDatePublished: "2026-08-07T07:08:00Z" source: "https://www.fivb.com/es/empowerment-funded-teams-sweep-entire-mens-podium-and-womens-gold-at-rio-elite/" topics: - name: "sport event" identifier: "medtop:20001108" - name: "sport achievement" identifier: "medtop:20001301" - name: "sport" identifier: "medtop:15000000" locations: - "Rio de Janeiro" - "Hamburg" - "Ostrava" - "France" - "Netherlands" - "Latvia" - "Brazil" - "Austria" - "Germany" - "United States" - "Switzerland" --- Latvia’s Martins Plavins & Kristians Fokerots win men’s gold at Rio de Janeiro Elite; first-ever Elite gold for Plavins and Fokerots Empowerment-funded teams sweep entire men’s podium and women’s gold at Rio Elite – FIVB FIVB Volleyball Empowerment beneficiaries swept the entire men’s podium and claimed the women’s gold at the Rio de Janeiro Elite on the Beach Pro Tour. Latvia’s Martins Plavins & Kristians Fokerots and Netherlands’ Katja Stam & Raisa Schoon triumphed as winners, while two French teams – Remi Bassereau Daubas & Calvin Aye and Teo Rotar & Arnaud Gauthier-Rat – finished first and second runners-up to the Latvians. Carol Solberg & Rebecca Cavalcanti of Brazil and Kelly Cheng & Megan Kraft of the United States completed the women’s podium with silver and bronze, respectively. The Volleyball Federation of Latvia has so far been allocated a total of USD 210,000 in coach support for their national teams in beach volleyball from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment, in addition to USD 5,500 in beach volleyball equipment. Their duos are working under the guidance of coach Genadijs Samoilovs. France’s beach volleyball department has been granted coach support funding from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment totaling USD 1,119,000 so far. Their men’s national duos are trained by Brazilian coach Calvis Lopes. The Federation Francaise de Volleyball has also received USD 5,500 in beach volleyball equipment. At the age of 41, Martins Plavins and his 21-year-old partner Kristians Fokerots of Latvia earned the team’s first-ever gold at the Elite level. They topped the men’s podium in Rio de Janeiro for their overall third gold and eighth medal on the Tour together. Two French teams completed the podium. Remi Bassereau Daubas & Calvin Aye claimed their third Beach Pro Tour silver. They also have one bronze on the Tour as a pair. Their compatriots Teo Rotar & Arnaud Gauthier-Rat, bronze medalists of the last FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship, Adelaide 2025, took the bronze, their third medal on the Tour, but only the first at an Elite event. Three-time Olympian and London 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Plavins and two-time age-group world champion Fokerots, seeded second in the Rio de Janeiro Elite main draw, cruised through the tournament on a run of seven consecutive wins, dropping only one set along the way, in a pool game. In their semifinal, the Latvians achieved a 2-0 (21-16, 28-26) victory over 13th-seeded Timo Hammarberg & Tim Berger of Austria. In the big final (pictured in the main photo) , Plavins & Fokerots mastered a 2-0 (21-17, 21-11) win over of third-seeded Daubas & Aye. Daubas & Aye finished the tournament on a 5-2 win-loss record, enough to bring home silver. They put together a 2-0 (21-12, 21-16) sweep of the all-French semifinal against eighth-seeded compatriots Teo Rotar & Arnaud Gauthier-Rat. The third-place match offered a three-set battle. Rotar & Gauthier-Rat came back from a set down against Hammarberg & Berger to celebrate a 2-1 (18-21, 21-16, 15-13) victory and snatch the bronze. The Netherlands Volleyball Federation (Nevobo) has so far been granted a total of USD 664,000 in national beach volleyball teams coach support from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment. Their women’s pairs benefit from the expertise of Brazilian coach Lucas Motta Palermo. Katja Stam & Raisa Schoon of the Netherlands triumphed as gold medalists in Rio without dropping a single set in the Brazilian sand. It was the first time the former number one team in the FIVB World Ranking topped an Elite-level podium since February 2023, when they won the Doha Elite16. The two-time Olympians have now collected a total of five Beach Pro Tour golds, in addition to six silvers and four bronzes. After their silver in Ostrava and bronze in Gstaad, Katja Stam & Raisa Schoon made it to their third Tour podium in a row, this time with the gold medals. Seeded third in the Rio main draw, they swept all seven of their matches in straight sets to conquer the trophy. In the semifinals, the Dutch duo mastered a 2-0 (21-18, 21-13) win over 20th-seeded French Olympians Clemence Vieira & Aline Chamereau, who came into the main draw from Wednesday’s qualifications. In the gold medal showdown, Stam & Schoon produced a 2-0 (21-16, 21-16) victory over home favorites Carol Solberg & Rebecca Cavalcanti. The current world’s number one team and bronze medalists of the Adelaide 2025 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship Carol & Rebecca settled for silver in front of the home crowd in Rio. It was the second runner-up finish for the Brazilian duo on the Tour. They have four gold medals in their collection. The bracket leaders also won all six of their matches on the way to the Rio final without dropping a set. They crowned that winning streak with a 2-0 (25-23, 21-16) shutout of sixth-seeded Americans Kelly Cheng & Megan Kraft in the semifinals. Former world champion Cheng and her current teammate Kraft, who have been competing together since the start of the season, completed the Rio podium with bronze, their third medal on the Tour, second consecutive, after the Gstaad Elite silver. Cheng & Kraft put together an emphatic 2-0 (21-13, 21-9) sweep of the third-place playoff against Vieira & Chamereau to make the podium with bronze. A total of 30 men’s and 32 women’s duos from 18 different federations took part in the Rio de Janeiro Elite. The next Elite stop on the Beach Pro Tour will take place in Hamburg, Germany from August 5 to 9. 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