Former NBA player Chase Budinger and his partner Miles Evans USA secures final Olympic beach volleyball spot Thanks to their strong performance in the second half of the qualifiers, they will be competing in the Paris tournament.
Budinger, 36, and Evans, 34, will be competing in their first Olympic Games.
Last month, they overtook compatriots Theo Brunner and Trevor Crabb in the international rankings for the second and final U.S. men's spot at the Paris Games.
And on Wednesday, they earned that spot after Brunner and Crabb were eliminated in the final qualifying tournament. To overtake them, Brunner and Crabb would have to advance further in the tournament and Budinger and Evans would have to be eliminated early.
list: US athletes qualify for Paris Olympics
Budinger and Evans were ranked fourth on the U.S. team last fall and have since enjoyed their best performance as a team. They are currently ranked second in the U.S. and 13th in the world.
Only two teams per country and per gender can participate in the Olympics.
The rest of the U.S. Olympic Beach Team has already qualified: Kelly Chen and Sarah Hughes, Taryn Cross and Kristen Nass (all medal contenders) on the women's side, and Andy Benesch and Miles Partin on the men's side.
During his high school days in California, Budinger Volleyball Magazine She was named indoor volleyball Player of the Year and was named co-MVP with Kevin Durant in the 2006 McDonald's All-American Game.
He chose basketball and played at the University of Arizona before playing for four NBA teams over seven seasons.
He ended his basketball career in 2017 after spending part of a season in Spain.
“I wanted to see how far I could go with basketball,” said Budinger, who played recreational beach volleyball with Richard Jefferson, Kevin Love and Luke Walton during his basketball career. Said in 2018“But in the back of my mind, I knew I could always go back to volleyball after basketball.”
Budinger began playing professional beach volleyball in 2018 and has had five different partners before teaming up with Evans for the 2023 season.
“Most people, when they finish their sport, they're left feeling confused or unsure of what their next journey or life brings,” he said. Sandcast Volleyball Podcast 2018“I was fortunate enough to quickly transition to another sport and play at the highest level.”
Budinger will be the first player to play in both an NBA regular season game and Olympic beach volleyball.
Keith Erickson played on the 1964 U.S. Olympic men's indoor volleyball team and then spent 12 seasons in the NBA, winning a championship in 1972 with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Evans played indoor volleyball at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2012 and 2013 before embarking on a professional career on the beach.
Since 2014, he played with 20 different partners before Budinger, according to BVBinfo.com.
Evans is the latest beach volleyball Olympic athlete from Santa Barbara, which also boasts gold medalists in Karch Kiraly (1996) and Todd Rogers (2008).
Budinger and Evans each won domestic AVP Tour tournaments with different partners before teaming up, but internationally, their best results came after teaming up last year.
Andy Benesh and Miles Partin will be competing in beach volleyball for the first time at the Olympics.
