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Out of the blue:Cubans Diaz andGonzales have gonefrom afterthoughtsto contenders onCopacabana

While the superstars of the sand have looked unconvincing earlyon in Rio, a relatively unknown team is making its mark.

The phrase “dark horse” gets thrown around rather

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August 12, 2016 at 2:07pm CT

By:Eric Goodman

NivaldoNadhirDiaz Gomez

Age 22 |Birthdate 3/24/1994

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SergioReynaldoGonzalezBayard

Age 26 |Birthdate 6/20/1990

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EvandroGoncalves

Age 26 |Birthdate 7/17/1990

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Diaz and Gonzalez celebrate their upset victory over Brazilians Pedro Solberg and Evandro. Credit:James Lang

frequently during the Olympics, but if there is anyone in

Rio legitimately worthy of the cliché, it is the Cuban

beach volleyball pair of Nivaldo Diaz and Sergio

Gonzalez.

The duo has beaten everyone they’ve faced on

Copacabana Beach so far, and they’ve faced some of the

best. In their opening match of Pool D preliminary play,

Diaz and Gonzalez stunned the fourth-ranked Brazilian

duo of Pedro Solberg and Evandro in a 2-1 thriller.

The Cubans then knocked off 2013 and 2014 FIVB Beach

Volleyball World Tour champions Janis Smedins and

Aleksandrs Samoilovs of Latvia in their second match of

pool play.

Most recently, they handled Canada’s top team of

Benjamin Saxton and Chaim Schalk in straight sets to

claim Pool D’s top spot.

Unlike many of Cuba’s global baseball stars, Diaz and

Beach Volleyball

Nivaldo Nadhir DiazGomez

Sergio ReynaldoGonzalez Bayard

Evandro Goncalves

Pedro Solberg Salgado

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Gonzalez have not had to defect from their home nation

to compete on their sport’s biggest stage. However, a lack

of funding for travel has prevented them from competing

on the World Tour alongside most of their Olympic

adversaries.

Instead, since pairing up in 2013 Diaz and Gonzalez have

remained relatively hidden in the NORCECA Tour which

competes throughout the Americas.

As they have demonstrated at these Olympics, 22-year-

old Diaz and 26-year-old Gonzalez do not lack world-

class talent. They are, though, without the big

tournament experience that the top-ranked teams in Rio

certainly possess.

Their coach, Alvaro Cutino, has helped that. Cutino

competed for Cuba at the 1996 and 2004 Games

alongside Juan Rosell, the last two natives of the island

to compete in an Olympic beach volleyball tournament.

“We have been training for this for a long time, for four

years now in Cuba,” Gonzales told FIVB.com. “We have

really good trainers like Alvaro… and really good players

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to train with as well.”

“We have trained every day and made a lot of sacrifices

and so far it has paid off. We hope it doesn’t stop here

and we want to start playing in the World Tour and take

our beach volleyball to another level.”

Diaz and Gonzalez hope that their success in Rio might

help grow the sport in Cuba, a nation with no shortage of

beaches and a strong sports culture.

Their pool-play success has earned the Cubans a cushy

round of 16 matchup against Austrians Alexander Horst

and Clemens Doppler, third place finishers in Pool A, at

2:00pm ET. If Diaz and Gonzales advance, they will meet

the Russian pair of Konstantin Semenov and Viacheslav

Krasilnikov on August 15.

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