After missing their bid for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games as their country’s No. 3-ranked team with only two teams per nation allowed, Laboureur and Sude qualified for the 2017 FIVB World Championships via their international ranking.  The Vienna appearance will be the second for the German team after placing 17th at the 2015 event in The Hague.  While the 2015 world championships were Sude’s first, Laboureur had two previous appearances highlighted by a fifth in 2011 with Jana Kohler.  In Laboureur’s first-ever FIVB-sanctioned event in 2008, she and Levke Spinger captured the gold medal at the under-19 world championships in The Hague.  Sude also won three medals in her first three FIVB youth world championships in 2004 (under-18 with Florentina Buttner), 2005 (under-19 with Buttner) and 2006 (under-21 with Kohler).  Despite missing the Rio Summer Games, Laboureur and Sude finished the 2016 season as the No. 3-ranked team on the FIVB World Tour behind Ludwig/Walkenhorst and April Ross/Kerri Walsh Jennings of the United States.  The pair’s gold medal finish at the 2016 Porec Major was unique as Laboureur and Sude had to win a qualifying match to advance to the Main Draw where the Germans defeated two Rio Olympic-qualified teams in the medal rounds.  Laboureur and Sude have also won five European tour events, including Baden 2017.