Alexander Horst (born 20 December 1982) is a

beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two to four players each on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side o ...

player from

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. He currently plays on the FIVB World

Beach Volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two to four players each on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side o ...

Tour with new partner Clemens Doppler. Horst found most success with partner

Florian Gosch Florian Gosch (born 16 August 1980) is a beach volleyball player from Austria.https://olympics.com/en/athletes/florian-gosch He and teammate Nikolas Berger represented Austria at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. Gosch and teammate ...

on the FIVB World Beach Volleyball Tour, however a knee injury forced

into early retirement in autumn 2010. Horst and teammate

represented Austria at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

Beijing, China Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. His career highlights include a 5th place showing at the Beijing Games, a 2nd place at the 2009

European Beach Volleyball Championships The European Beach Volleyball Championship (or the Nestea European Championship Final) is a unisex sport, sport competition for national teams in the sport of beach volleyball. The championship is held annually by the European Volleyball Confeder ...

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Сочи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg, from – ''seaside'') is the largest Resort town, resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi (river), Sochi River, along the Black Sea in the North Caucasus of Souther ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, and a 2nd place at the Stare Jablonki Grand Slam in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

in 2012.

2007

In his first full season playing with big blocker Gosch, the results were very positive including ninth-place positions at the Grand Slam in

Stavanger Stavanger, officially the Stavanger Municipality, is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the third largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, the Beach Volleyball World Championships in

Gstaad Gstaad ( , ) is a town in the German language, German-speaking section of the Canton of Bern in southwestern Switzerland. It is part of the municipality of Saanen and is known as a major ski resort and a popular destination amongst high society ...

, Switzerland and the

in Spain. With 2 other 9th-place finishes at open tournaments along with a bronze medal at

Åland Åland ( , ; ) is an Federacy, autonomous and Demilitarized zone, demilitarised region of Finland. Receiving its autonomy by a 1920 decision of the League of Nations, it is the smallest region of Finland by both area () and population (30,54 ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, the team of Gosch-Horst was well on its way to olympic qualification.

2008

A disappointing season with no top 10 finishes up until the 2008 Summer Olympics in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. In the games, they overcame possible elimination in the lucky loser bracket to post a very solid 5th-place finish in eventually losing to the Brazilian silver medalists, Marcio and Fabio.

2009

A very good season with 7 top 10 finishes and then topping it off with a silver medal at the

2010

Best finishes in 2010 include a 7th place showing early in the season in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

, and a 4th-place finish in Marseille World Series in July. This in his last season playing with Gosch who would have to retire at the end of the season due to knee complications.

2011

After the retirement of Gosch, Horst played on the 2011 FIVB World

Tour with new partner and beach volleyball rookie Daniel Müllner. Their best showing was a 17th place in the

2011 Beach Volleyball World Championships The 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Championships were a beach volleyball double-gender event, which were held from June 13 to 19, 2011 in Rome, Italy.Clemens Doppler duo, who also split from his partner on the same day. Horst and Doppler would go on to announce their partnership 2 weeks later.

2012

The season started out at the Myslowice Open in Poland. Horst and Doppler placed a solid 7th place to kick off the new season. Between mixed results in the FIVB World Tour and the 2012 CEV European Championships, Horst and Doppler posted a hometown win in

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in southern Germany. In earlier times it was considered to be on both sides of the Upper Rhine, but since the Napoleonic Wars, it has been considered only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Ba ...

. However, their best success in the 2012 season was grabbing a last-minute spot in the 2012 Summer Olympics qualification round in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

on 1 July. The pair had a heartbreaking pool play loss to the Swiss Heuscher/Bellaguarda in the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, ending their olympic hopes in pool play at 19th place. One week after the Olympics, the Austrian duo rebounded for a silver team medal, beating the season's world champions Gibb/Rosenthal for their best showing on the FIVB tour by an Austrian men's pair ever.

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Horst, Alexander 1982 births Living people Austrian beach volleyball players Men's beach volleyball players Beach volleyball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Beach volleyball players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Beach volleyball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic beach volleyball players for Austria Sportspeople from Vienna Beach volleyball players at the 2024 Summer Olympics