German star Lippmann moving to the beach

One of the most successful players in German volleyball history, Louisa Lippmann will keep pursuing her dreams in the sport, but now on the sand after the 27-year-old star announced she will switch to beach volleyball.

Lippmann, who helped her club team Savino Del Bene Scandicci reach the semifinals of the 2021-2022 Italian League, announced her retirement from international volleyball earlier this month. She has now said she will continue playing, but on the sand.

“My desire for more self-determination and individuality begins now,” she wrote on Instagram to announce the move. “In the last few weeks, I realized I love this sport so much, but that I can’t continue indoors as I’d like. A new chapter begins for me with the change from volleyball to beach volleyball.”

Lippmann, who also played in Germany, Russia and Chin,a and was the top scorer of the CEV European Olympic Qualification tournament in 2020, played 162 matches for the German national team, after joining the squad in 2013.

The 1.91m-tall Lippmann has moved to Hamburg, where she has started training at the German Federation training centre.

Lippmann still doesn’t have a partner or a planned tournament for her debut on the sand, but she had a brief experience in the sport in 2020, when she competed at an event on the German Tour with Isabel Schneider.

Lippmann believes her move to the sand will help her fulfil one of the very few missing pieces in her career – competing at the Olympics. The former German national team opposite knows she has no time to waste, but she hopes to be at the Paris 2024 Games.

“I know it’s kind of crazy to come to the beach just two years before the next Olympics, without a partner and while being in a good situation with my volleyball career,” she said in an interview with Spiegel.de. “But I asked myself how I would look at my career after I retired and I noticed I still miss something that’s really special. Beach volleyball brings a new pressure and that really motivates me.”

Lippmann joins a growing list of players who have moved from volleyball to beach volleyball. Some have been highly successful in their beach careers, most notably Americans Kerri Walsh Jennings and Alix Klineman and Brazilian Jackie Silva, who won Olympic titles, and Canadian Sarah Pavan, who won the FIVB World Championship.