Tuvalu’s beach volleyball team take stage for nation hit by climate crisis

The Commonwealth Games are renowned for some of the biggest sporting nations competing side-by-side with countries that rarely have the opportunity to display themselves on the international stage. But even by those standards, the opening of the beach volleyball was a sight to behold.

Standing before Javier and Joaquin Bello, England’s world No 60 beach volleyball team, were Ampex Isaac and Saaga Malosa from the islands of Tuvalu. The 4,000 spectators encircling them were equivalent to around 35% of the population of Tuvalu, the third-least populous independent country in the world with 11,000 inhabitants. “We’re not used to it,” said Isaac.

Their path to this moment was unique. Isaac, previously an indoor volleyball player, had joined forces with Malosa two months ago. They were bronze medallists at the Pacific Mini Games in June, a multi-sport event among the smaller territories in Oceania.

They have had a few training camps in Australia, but back home in Tuvalu, not a single beach volleyball court existed. “We have beaches but they are sloped,” said Isaac. “We didn’t really manage to get a court until last month when we were coming to the Games.”

Merely having a place to train is a common obstacle for any aspiring athlete in Tuvalu, a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Australia. For other athletes, such as the rest of their five-man squad, the main sporting base is the runway of Funafuti International Airport, the only open space in the archipelago. Since it receives two planes a week, the runway becomes filled with young people playing football, rugby and enjoying life. The athletes carve out their own space to train among the population.

Their joyful presence in Birmingham is paired with the