Editor Note: This piece was transcribed by Panayioti Yannitsos. We knew we’d be playing for the Olympics. The FIVB World Continental Cup in 2016 was the most pressure-filled event that Grant O’Gorman and I had played together. After playing on the FIVB tour week-after-week, this one was different. It was a black and white finish. Win — and qualify a second Canadian team (Chaim Schalk and Ben Saxton were already in) for Rio. Lose — and the dream is over. Grant and I were a fairly inexperienced team at the time relative to fellow Canadians Josh Binstock and Sam Schachter, who were competing in the tournament with us. The way that the Continental Cup is set up, nationally-ranked number one...
After a decade of representing Canada, beach volleyball athlete Sam Pedlow has announced his retirement. "Having represented Canada for the past 10 years as a member of the National Team was an experience that not only helped shape me as an athlete, but also as a person,” Pedlow said. “I never thought volleyball would have such a big and long-lasting effect on my life. “Being a professional beach volleyball player on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, NORCECA Tour, at the U21 World Championships, at the Senior World Championships and in pursuit of the 2016/2021 Olympic Games was something I never thought possible. Even now looking back on the experience sometimes I still don't believe that this kid from Barrie...
Canadians Sam Schachter and Sam Pedlow are looking to make a big Olympic push in the Cancun hub Original Post The decision of whether or not Sam Schachter and Sam Pedlow would travel to Doha, Qatar, two weeks ago for the season-opening four-star event was not as black and white as it might initially seem. They’re dancing a high-wire act, The Sams. On the one hand, prior to the event, the Canadians were the No. 15 ranked team in the Olympic race, holding tight onto the final qualification spot for Tokyo. A seventeenth-place finish or better from Swiss Mirco Gerson and Adrian Heidrich in Doha would knock them down, one spot out of the coveted top-15. On the other hand,...
Sam Pedlow has been known as one of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour's hardest workers for some time now, but he insists that this season is about working smart.
With the Olympics still over four months away, the Tokyo organizing committee and the International Olympic Committee insist the Games will open July 24. While that's heartening to Canadian athletes who have already qualified to be part of Team Canada in Tokyo, dozens have been thrown into qualification limbo.
