Anders Mol and Christian Sørum have been setting the pace in international beach volleyball for years. Olympic and world champions and one of the most dominant teams on the circuit, the Norwegian duo have built their success on a mix of talent and countless hours of training. In a discipline long dominated by the United States and Brazil, the rise of European teams can also be explained by places like the Canary Islands, where winter training never stops.
In beach volleyball there are teams that simply compete together. And then there are teams that define an era. Anders Mol and Christian Sørum belong firmly in the latter category.
They first started playing together in 2016, when they were paired up for the Under-22 European Championship. What began as an experiment soon turned into one of the most successful partnerships in modern beach volleyball. “After that tournament we realised everything worked really well between us,” Mol explains.
From that point on, their rise was meteoric. In just a few years they went from being one of Europe’s promising young teams to dominating the international scene. Olympic gold in Tokyo confirmed a trajectory already filled with world titles and multiple victories on the professional tour. Their complementary strengths on the sand are a key part of their success: Mol controls the net with one of the most feared blocks in world beach volleyball, while Sørum covers the court with exceptional tactical defence, making him one of the sport’s finest specialists.
Yet even after years at the top, their mindset has not changed. “We are never completely satisfied. We always know there is room to improve,” the duo explain.
The setting that has changed the rankings
For decades, international beach volleyball was dominated by the United States and Brazil. In recent seasons, however, the balance of power has shifted. Today the world rankings show an increasing presence of European teams at the top.
One reason lies in how the season is prepared. “Now we come here to the archipelago and we can train all year in perfect conditions. The United States and Brazil used to dominate, but if you look at the world ranking now, European teams are ahead,” the pair explain.
The Canary Islands have become one of the key locations for that preparation. When the European winter arrives, many of the best teams on the circuit gather in the archipelago to keep training in real competition conditions.
“All the European teams come to the Canary Islands to train during the winter,” Sørum says.
A high-performance training ground
In a sport where coordination between the two players is decisive, continuity in training makes a real difference. Every session helps refine movements, improve communication on the sand and fine-tune strategy.
In the Canary Islands, that continuity is possible. “Here we have wind, sunshine and a very stable climate,” they explain. “That’s very important because we know we can train every day for two or three weeks.”
The archipelago also offers facilities prepared to host international teams. “There are top-level training facilities around here and, for us, it’s very special to be able to fly just five hours and arrive somewhere like this,” says Anders Mol.
nosotros es muy especial poder volar solo cinco horas y llegar a un lugar así”, afirma Anders Mol.
Where dominance is built
Before the international calendar begins, many of Mol and Sørum’s most important hours of work take place far from tournaments. These are weeks of training, repetition and adjustments that later show their value in major competitions.
The Canary Islands are part of that process. “They’ve become something like a second home for us,” they say.
Here they prepare the start of each season and train alongside some of the best teams on the international circuit — a perfect environment where the competitive level is shaped long before the first tournament of the year begins.