Lausanne, Switzerland, March 1, 2017 – Olympic champions Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst are planning a return to action for early May after Ludwig completes her return from shoulder surgery that took place in December.
Walkenhorst played the opening 2017 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour tournament in Fort Lauderdale alongside Julia Grossner in February, but Ludwig expects to be back on the court for the German National Tour event that takes place in Munster from May 5-7.
“We are fully on track,” Ludwig said. “The physios and doctors are more than satisfied and they have all done an incredible job.
“Over the last two weeks we made a break through. All of a sudden, I could use my arm again in everyday life and have been training on the ball since last Monday. We will go carefully over the next two weeks, because my shoulder still needs a lot of stability.”
If her return goes well then Ludwig’s first World Tour tournament is likely to be the Rio de Janeiro 4-Star tournament that runs from May 17-21. It will be her and Walkenhorst’s first return to the city where they won gold at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games.
Before then she and Walkenhorst are set to travel to Tenerife for warm-weather training and it will be the first time the pair have trained together this year.
After their success in 2016 which also featured gold at the Toronto 2016 World Tour Finals and the CEV European Championships, the over-riding aim for 2017 is victory at the Vienna 2017, FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, even though as Olympic champions they will now be targeted even more closely.
“The year after the Olympic Games is always exciting as far as the teams are concerned,” Ludwig said. “As far as our game is concerned, we are looking forward to training again. Also the World Championships are coming again this year as we want to perform well.
“We are in a different role. It will definitely be exciting seeing how we will deal with it, but we will have enough help from our team to learn and get along with it.”