Beach volleyball players Miller Pata and Linline Matauatu were training for the Rio Olympics when a Category 5 cyclone hit their Vanuatu homeland and wiped out their practice court.
The few alternatives at the many public beaches on the South Pacific nation’s 80 islands are often crowded. Plus, the sand in Vanuatu is hard — not like the coarse-grained particles that beach volleyball players prefer for jumping and diving — forcing them to look abroad for alternatives.
In Vanuatu, which is about 2,575km from Sydney, Australia, last year’s Cyclone Pam was more than just a training obstacle. With winds as high as 270kph, it left 65,000 homeless, cut power and water to thousands more and was blamed for 17 deaths along the archipelago.
Matauatu’s home was destroyed completely, while the front of Pata’s was sheared off in the storm. Their effort to qualify for the 2016 Olympics despite the storm and other obstacles is the subject of a documentary short called A Fighting Chance, by the Oscar and Grammy-winning director of 20 Feet from Stardom, Morgan Neville.
A trailer for the film was viewed by The Associated Press in advance of its planned release at the South by Southwest festival this week. Samsung, an Olympic sponsor and the funder of the film, also provided the athletes with smartphones to help them stay connected with their families and work with their coaches from a distance.
Also featured are marathon runner Tsepo Mathibelle, of Lesotho, and Dominican boxer Yenebier Guillen Benitez. Mathibelle finished last in London four years ago — only the second time he had ever raced at the distance; Guillen is trying to become the first Dominican woman to medal at the Summer Olympics.
With little support from a national federation, the Ni-Vanuatu are forced to find their own training facilities and cannot afford hotels when they travel to international events — a necessity to qualify for the Olympics. While in Brazil for the FIVB World Tour event, they stayed at the home of a friend of a friend.
Pata and Matauatu, who were eliminated in pool play in the Rio Grand Slam this weekend, remained below the top 16 spots needed to qualify for the Summer Games; if they fail to move up, they would have another chance in a continental qualifier.
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