Moscow, Russia, May 26, 2016 – Casey Patterson and Jake Gibb are in good shape to make it to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. The American pair is currently fifth on the Olympic ranking, excluding Brazilians. For 40-year old Gibb Rio is going to be his third Olympics, but for 36-year old Patterson this will be his first.
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Patterson tried to qualify for the 2012 London Olympic Games with Brad Keenan, the husband of April Ross. “But we started out too late”, he said Wednesday after he and Gibb beat Israel 2-0 (21-19, 21-18) in pool play at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Moscow Grand Slam. “We got a couple of top ten finishes on grand slams, but that was it. In 2012 I only played on the national tour.”
In 2013 he partnered up with Patterson, who had finished fifth with Sean Rosenthal at the 2012 London Olympic Games. “We decided to play together without ever training or practicing or seeing how our chemistry was”, Patterson said. “We took a chance. But it really worked out. Immediately we felt really comfortable with each other.”
Patterson and Gibb won two gold medals, six medals in total, in 37 FIVB events so far. Their last title dates back to the St. Petersburg Open in June 2015.
Now that the 2016 Olympics are within their grasps, Patterson has sleepless nights about it. “I have had some anxiety at 3 am. Wondering. Are Jake and I gonna get to go? Because this is something that I want so badly. It has kept me awake at night. Thinking about it and pondering what can I do. Just these crazy thoughts.”
Having a family has kept him down to earth. “Because having three children under the age of seven, you really can’t think of anything else but the chaos that is in your house at that time. The fun that you have going to baseball games and all these things, you know. So family has helped me a lot with dealing with that and being able to relax my mind from volleyball.”