All Eyes on Paris with Moritz Pristauz, beach volleyball champion from Austria

On this weeks show, I chat with defender and now defender AND blocker, 27 yr old Austrian Moritz Pristauz who is currently on his road to qualifying for the Paris Olympic Games with partner, Robin Seidl.
Born in Graz and now residing in Vienna with his Norwegian partner, Oda and their gorgeous daughter, Emilie, the 6’4” Moritz is in the prime of his beach volleyball career.
Pristauz comes from a volleyball family. His grandfather was a coach and his parents were active players. As a teenager he played indoors at UVC Graz, but then switched to beach volleyball.
His international career began back in 2013, when he first represented Austria at the U/18 European beach volleyball championships, winning a silver medal.
He then played in one or two events over the next couple of years before settling into a partnership with Martin Ermacora for the next 7 yrs.
A few medals on the WT but never really settling into any consistency created an opportunity to make changes.
A switch of partners at the beginning of the Olympic qualifying period early in 2023 may have been seen to be a risk in some peoples eye’s but for Moritz and his now new partner, Robin Seidl, it was a matter of now or never.
Right off the mark, they medalled in their first event… with their best being a GOLD at the challenge event on Goa, India and again in Nuvali, Phillipines.
With 7 more events scheduled until the end of the qualification period for the Paris Olympics, Moritz and his partner have plenty of opportunities to jump higher in the rankings and book their spot into the Games.
athletestory #athletestories #athletes #beachvolleyball #motivation #olympichopeful #austraianbeachvolleyball #olympicqualification