- Javier and Joaquin Bello aim to qualify for the Olympics in beach volleyball
- Born in Spain and moved to the UK at the age of 10, they were inspired by the London 2012 Games.
- 21-year-old amateur twins are one of the smallest pairs on the pro circuit
Javier Bello holds up his phone to display a photo of him and his twin brother Joaquin in the background. This is an artist's impression of the Eiffel Tower stadium, this summer's Olympic beach volleyball venue, located at the foot of Paris' most iconic landmark.
“We have been living our Olympic dream for the past few years,” Javier admits. “As soon as I saw the venue, I said, 'That looks really nice, we want to go there, too.'”
The venue where the London-based brothers hold their Mail Sports is a small beach on the banks of the River Thames, where they hit volleyballs around for photos.
When one of the onlookers asks, “Are you taking photos to promote the Olympics?'' Bello and his friends purposely reply, “Somehow,'' because they haven't yet reserved their seats in Paris. However, with only four months left until the Olympics, he still has a long way to go to qualify for the Olympics.
“If you had asked us a year ago, we would have said we weren't going to be close,” admits Javier, the more talkative twin. “But we have been deeply involved in the tournament and things have changed. We are going to be in the race to the end. We definitely have a great chance.”
If this happens, the 23-year-olds will become the first British beach volleyball pair to qualify for the Olympics. Team GB has only previously competed at his 2012 London Games, where they were able to compete as hosts.
Therefore, this would be an amazing feat for the Velos, especially since they are amateurs in professional sports.
Off the court, Joaquín has just passed his final year medical exams at Imperial College, while Javier is studying for a master's degree in strategic communications at King's College with degrees in politics, philosophy and economics. studying.
“Everyone in the rankings around us are professionals. They get paid to play, but we have to pay to play,” Joaquin says. “We still live at home. We've tried to recreate a professional team environment with our family, so our dad coaches us, our mom manages the logistics, and our younger brother trains.” We are partners.
“If we can get this far with what we have, and if we can do this for a living, I think we can really be one of the top teams in the world.” estimates that training for two hours a day, six days a week at Barn Elms Sports Center in south-west London would cost around £7,000 a year in court rental fees.
“This is one of our legacy facilities from 2012, so we get to train on the same sand as the Olympics, which is really cool,” Javier says.
“But it's outdoors, so you have to endure the winter. On some days, you have to scrape the ice with the rake you use to level the court. Otherwise, you play barefoot, so it gets narrow. Too much can be dangerous.
“But we never cancel training. Other international teams stop as soon as the temperature drops below a certain level or it rains. You won’t be able to train!”
The Bello family was born in the warm climate of Madrid. They started playing indoor volleyball at the age of six under the influence of their father, Luis, a former Spanish professional player and coach.
In 2011, at the age of 10, the couple moved to London as their mother Barbara worked as a licensing director for Disney. “It was really good for our volleyball,” Javier says. “When we moved here, there wasn’t a lot of junior volleyball, so you had to play with adults.
“We also managed to get tickets to beach volleyball at the London 2012 Games. We were really inspired by what we saw there and that's when we decided to move from indoors to the beach.”
Since then, Beros has been on an upward trajectory, winning bronze at the Birmingham Games in 2022 and becoming England's first beach volleyball medal at the Commonwealth Games. “This was a really big milestone for us as a team and for British beach volleyball,” says Javier. “Since then, it has grown a lot and more kids are playing than ever before.”
The eloquent Bello is an ideal ambassador for the sport. It is no surprise that they were two of the few English players selected to play against the Prince and Princess of Wales at the Commonwealth Games. They were also among a small number of guests invited to Birmingham's 2022 reception in Downing Street, which the twins say was ideal for Javier.
“He should be a politician,” laughs Joaquin. “He's our publicist, but I'm more reserved. But wisely, we're very similar. We're both very explosive, and we're both very explosive, and we're both very explosive, and I'm more reserved. They move around very quickly on top.”
Javier added: “We're one of the smallest teams in the world — I'm 6 feet tall, Joaquin is 6 feet 1 inch — so we try to compensate by being very physical.'' We gave up. not. That is our identity. We are brothers and warriors. We are very united on the court. We don't have to communicate as much as other teams because we know each other so well. ”
With nine tournaments left to earn ranking points before the June deadline, including this week's tournament in Brazil, Beros is in a position to compete for one of the 24 pairs to qualify for the 2024 Paris Games.
“Qualifying means the world to us,” Javier added. “We dream of being on the court in that stadium we showed you, sitting there with our families cheering us on.”
