Never before has the world seen anything like what Swedes David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig achieved in the final of the Olympic Games in Paris on Saturday evening.

A victory over the Germans Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler? That was to be expected. Sweden had already achieved this ten times in a row before the fight for the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Paris, and six times in 2024 alone.

But a 21-10, 21-13 defeat? The most one-sided victory in an Olympic final in history? A bigger margin than the three gold medals won by Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings? And this despite Ehlers and Wickler being at the peak of their careers, shortly after their first career victories over Anders Mol and Christian Sorum in Thursday’s semifinals?

It was, suffice it to say, a statement.

Yes, Sweden came to Paris as No. 1. Yes, they were No. 1 in the world rankings and had been for months. Yes, they had reached ten consecutive finals before Paris, a streak stretching back more than a year. But many in the beach volleyball world still couldn’t shake the thought that Mol and Sorum had been displaced by the 22-year-old breakout stars who are actively revolutionizing the way the game is played.

Sweden hasn’t won a World Cup yet. They haven’t lasted as long as Mol and Sorum have.

And yet, since Saturday, there has been no other choice. There is no longer any debate.

Sweden is the best beach volleyball team in the world.

They usher in a new era of ball control, movement and attitude that the players will inevitably have to adopt or at least adapt in order to stop or slow down the Swedes.

What we experienced on Saturday was a groundbreaking moment for this sport.

There will be a “Before Sweden” and an “After Sweden”.

At the moment there is no before or after. It is simply Sweden’s time.

“They are the best team in the world,” Wickler told Volleyball World. “If you look at the last two years, the number of times they’ve won gold medals at the highest level, and at this Olympics they were top-seeded. I think any medal other than gold would have been disappointing for them. They are very, very strong.”

Once the group stage was over and Sweden had overcome the nervous problems that had led to two defeats in three matches – as many as in the entire season – there was no stopping them. Only Cuban Jorge Alayo and Noslen Diaz, who finished in a deceptively low ninth place with a great performance, managed to win a set for Sweden at the start of the playoffs.

To Cuba?

No one even came within three points in a single set.

Not Evandro Goncalves and Arthur Mariano from Evandro. Not Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan from Qatar. Not Ehlers and Wickler.

Sweden played four consecutive opponents in the playoff rounds who had yet to suffer a loss at that point in the tournament – and promptly suffered one devastating defeat after another, winning their last six sets by an average of 21-14.3. Against the best teams in the world, when the world has the greatest talent pool it has ever seen.

Those are numbers you’d expect from Mol and Sorum, Olympic veterans who have been on this stage before and won on this stage before. And those were certainly the numbers Mol and Sorum had in mind for their teams before Thursday’s semifinals – and then again in the bronze medal match. But on Saturday, it was the Olympic newbies, the 22-year-olds with a dazzlingly bright future, who showed such dominance and defeated the team that had beaten the Norwegians.

It is now Sweden’s world.

On Saturday, it was Hellvig’s world, to be precise. The 6’3″ blocker finished the match with four blocks, three of them in a 21-10 first set win that set the tone for the second set. When Sweden wins sets by such a large margin, it’s usually Ahman, the electrifying defender, who dishes out the blows. But it was Hellvig who blocked Ehlers and Wickler, perfectly set options, marked lines, found space and fired swings and shots at Ahman. It was Hellvig who seized the moment when the moment called for it. All Ahman really had to do was pick up the chunks that came his way.

“We were focused before this game and knew that if we played well we could win,” Ahman said. “And then we had a really good start and after that everything just worked out for us and I still can’t believe how we managed to play so well.”

Norwegians Anders Mol and Christian Sorum win Olympic bronze

For six years, Anders Mol and Christian Sorum have been on an unassailable run. World champions? Got it. World number 1? For years. European champions? Four times in a row. And in Paris, they settled for bronze after recovering from a heartbreaking semi-final loss to Germany with a 21-13, 21-16 victory over Cherif and Ahmed, who reached their second Olympic semi-final in a row.

Ahman and Hellvig won Sweden’s first Olympic medal, while Mol and Sorum took Norway’s second. Ehlers and Wickler won Germany’s first medal in more than a decade, when Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann won gold in London in 2012.