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Thailand Is Going to LA28 🌍
Thailand beat China 3-2 (25-20, 11-25, 23-25, 25-18, 15-10) for the one Olympic place Asia had to give. It is the first Games any Thai women's volleyball team has reached.
For the first time, a Thai women's volleyball team is going to the Olympics.
Thailand beat China 3-2 (25-20, 11-25, 23-25, 25-18, 15-10) in the final of the AVC Continental Championship in Tianjin on Sunday night, and took the one Los Angeles place Asia had to give.
Thailand did it in China, against China, and it did it as the lower-ranked side. Ten places separate the two teams in the FIVB world ranking, and Thailand is on the wrong end of them.
Thailand took the first set and then lost the next two. The first of those was 11-25, a fourteen-point set in a match with a Games place attached to it.
Five Cycles Ended Without a Games
Thailand has been close before, and repeatedly. The Nation in Bangkok counted five cycles on Monday morning, Beijing 2008 through Paris 2024, and not one of them finished with a place.
Two turned on single results. The paper puts Thailand outside London 2012 on set ratio, and out of Tokyo 2020 on a sweep by South Korea played at home in Nakhon Ratchasima.
Rio 2016 is the one Thai supporters replay. The Nation describes a five-set loss to Japan in that qualification, decided amid a substitution dispute and a red card in the deciding set.
Most of this squad lost at least two of those cycles in person. Losing a qualification is a different wound from losing a final, because there is no next round to lose in.
Thailand head coach Kiattipong Radchatagriengkai, to Volleyball World in Tianjin on Sunday night.
I see it as a miracle. It's fantastic. I'd like to thank all the players and the staff. This is our dream and our country's dream, to go to the Olympics. And now we got it, I can't believe it.
The Ticket Went to the Lower-Ranked Team
One Los Angeles place was on offer in Tianjin, and three places at the 2027 FIVB World Cup went with it, per Volleyball World's preview of the tournament on 21 August.
The place is direct. That is what makes it worth a five-set final, because the teams that miss it are left with world qualification and a world ranking Thailand entered Tianjin 17th in.
Khaosod English puts Thailand 17th in the FIVB world ranking and China seventh. A continental pathway does not price that in, and that is the argument for having one.
Pornpun Guedpard set the match and was named its most valuable player. Her instruction to her team after it went down two sets to one was to stop playing for the result.
Guedpard, the Thailand captain, in the same Volleyball World report.
This is a big moment for our country. This is a dream coming true. Holding the ticket to LA 2028 was unbelievable. I had a feeling that we could win, and after we lost the third set, I just told our players to be themselves. I didn't care if we'd win or lose. I just wanted us to play a fun game and to play together.
China Won Two Sets and Lost the Match
Sasipapron Janthawisut scored 28 points for Thailand on 25 kills and three aces, and Thatdao Nuekjang scored 18 with seven blocks inside them. Chatchu-On Moksri had 17.
Zhuang Yushan and Wu Mengjie scored 21 each for China. That is 42 points from the host's two leading scorers against 46 from Thailand's two, in a match China led two sets to one.
Seven of Nuekjang's 18 points came at the net. Janthawisut's 28 came almost entirely off the ground, 25 of them kills and three from the service line.
China put three players on the tournament's dream team, Thailand two and Japan one. Japan's place went to Yukiko Wada, an opposite hitter whose team lost its semifinal to Thailand.
Thailand Beat Japan to Get Here
Thailand reached the final by beating Japan 3-1 (25-21, 25-20, 20-25, 25-20) and China got there by sweeping Iran 3-0 (25-22, 25-12, 25-19), both on Saturday.
Neither rights holder published either semifinal result for several hours, and the Volleyball World competition page listed both matches as upcoming while they were being played.
Khaosod English framed the win wider on Monday. No Thai team in any team sport has qualified for an Olympics since the men's footballers played Mexico City in 1968, and Los Angeles will be the fifteenth Summer Games since.
