The development of beach volleyball in Cape Verde has marked solid all-around progress in recent years, ever since it started receiving much needed support from the FIVB Volleyball Empowerment program, and especially since the arrival of coach Marcio Henrique Barroso Araujo, a legendary Brazilian athlete, an Olympic silver medalist at Beijing 2008 and a winner of three FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship medals, including a Berlin 2005 gold.
Cape Verde’s beach volleyball has so far been allocated a total of USD 147,000 in FIVB Volleyball Empowerment coach support, USD 11,500 in beach volleyball equipment and USD 6,000 in a referee development knowledge transfer program. This support has already proven vital for reactivating the small African island nation’s beach volleyball program and borne fruit both on and off the sand courts. This investment enabled the execution of training programs, capacity-building courses, participation in national and international competitions, organization of official events, and improvement of sports infrastructure.
The arrival of Marcio Araujo in Cape Verde in February 2024 marked a decisive turning point for national beach volleyball. The beach volleyball modality was practically limited to a few irregular national competitions, with incipient participations in zonal and continental events. As part of the Empowerment project, several clinics and training actions were carried out on various islands, allowing the practice of beach volleyball to be revived, sports communities to be revitalized and young talents to be identified for regular training programs.
Ludmila Varela (Lu) & Janice Varela (Jany) and Admilson Melo & Ivan Mota have stood out as the country’s leading pairs in women’s and men’s beach volleyball, respectively. They both participated in the 2024 African Zone II qualifiers. Lu & Jany even won the event and qualified for the 2024 African Continental Championship, where they achieved an honorable fourth place. Towards the end of the year, Lu & Jany marked Cape Verde’s historic debut appearance on the Beach Pro Tour as they played at the Marica Futures in Brazil. In 2025, the Cape Verdean duo also represented the country at the Lille Futures in France and, of course, at December’s Laginha Beach Futures at home in Cape Verde.
“Marcio Araujo stands out as punctual, responsible, hardworking and very dedicated to his work. He is also a very demanding and attentive coach, always focused on the continuous evolution of the team,” said Jany Varela. “He demonstrates a great capacity for analyzing athletes, identifying individual and collective difficulties, and works consistently to overcome them, contributing directly to the improvement of technical and competitive performance. Thanks to this work, Cape Verde will continue to organize its Futures event, which represents a great step forward for national beach volleyball and for me. On a personal level, as an athlete, I have made great technical gains in beach volleyball, as well as significant growth in terms of competitive experience.”
“For me, (the arrival of) coach Marcio Araujo is one of the great events in Cape Verde’s volleyball history, because he boosted the practice of beach volleyball in our country,” Lu Varela added. “As coach of the Cape Verdean national teams and the Varela sisters in particular, he has been a fundamental pillar in their technical development, contributing decisively to the teams’ growth and especially to our competitiveness on the international stage. With his arrival, our knowledge of volleyball improved greatly, which consequently increased our technical level, opening doors to major competitions. Along with us, he aims to achieve our great dream of going to the next Olympics in 2028.”
In parallel with sports development, an identification and analysis of the existing infrastructure in the country was carried out. In conjunction with the Institute of Sports and Youth (IDJ), the first National Beach Volleyball Training Center was created in the capital Praia. At this center, Marcio Araujo began to conduct high-performance training, preparing the pairs that represent Cape Verde in senior and youth international competitions, establishing a work methodology aligned with FIVB standards.
The actions developed in 2024 throughout the national territory left an important legacy of local trainers on the visited islands, who continue working with the youth levels. The athletes with the best performance are subsequently integrated into national programs under the technical coordination of Marcio Araujo.
In 2025, the regional championships gave access to the Cape Verde National Circuit, culminating in the identification of the pairs that represented the host nation at the first Beach Pro Tour event ever held in Cape Verde, the Laginha Beach Futures in Sao Vicente. Throughout the year, Lu & Jany and Admilson & Ivan participated in several international competitions, including events in Portugal and the African Continental Championships in Morocco, always accompanied by Marcio Araujo as National Technical Coordinator.
“I would like to express my recognition and appreciation for the work of coach Marcio Araujo since his arrival in Cape Verde. His presence has proven to be a real asset for national beach volleyball,” commented Ivan Mota. “His arrival represented a unique opportunity to come into contact with knowledge that had been little explored in our context. His contribution brought a renewed and necessary dynamic, especially in a country where, for a long time, beach volleyball was practiced in a sporadic way. In a broader horizon, with our eyes set on Los Angeles 2028, I firmly believe that the continuity of coach Marcio Araujo’s work will be extremely important in making this dream a possible reality for our athletes and for the country. It is also important to highlight the human side of coach Marcio Araujo. His simplicity, dedication and passion for the sport make volleyball more than just a sport: they make it a true home, where athletes and coaches feel motivated to grow.”
2025 was also marked by Cape Verde’s participation in a U18 women’s FIVB/CAVB tournament in Gambia and in the U18 men’s qualifications in CAVB Zone II. Cape Verde achieved a historic success by reaching the podium at the men’s beach volleyball tournament of the CPLP (Community of Portuguese Language Countries) Games, also known as Lusofonia Youth Games, a U16 multi-sport event held in Dili, Timor-Leste last summer. Denzel Ramos & Micael Barbosa reached the boys’ final and claimed silver.
In 2025, new clinics with Marcio Araujo were held on the islands and a national referee training course was held in Sao Vicente, with the participation of representatives from all sports regions, reinforcing the quality of refereeing, game tables, and competitive organization throughout the country.
The strategic vision brought by Marcio Araujo continues to challenge the Cape Verdean federation (FCV) and its National Beach Volleyball Commission with clear and ambitious goals for the future with the continuation of the Empowerment project in 2026: to consistently sign Cape Verde for international competitions, to create more high-level competitive pairs, to work towards qualifying for the 2027 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, to work towards qualifying for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games via the African continental qualification path, to increase the number of Cape Verdean pairs on the Beach Pro Tour, and to guarantee the presence of young athletes at the continental qualifications for the FIVB U19 World Championships.
In this context of massification of beach volleyball and guaranteeing sustainability and continuity for the next Olympic cycles, the creation of new High-Performance Centers is underway, in coordination with Marcio Araujo.
Coach Araujo expressed great satisfaction in having broad institutional support throughout the development of the project, highlighting the effective cooperation between the Cape Verdean Volleyball Federation, government agencies and sports institutions involved. The success and continuity of the project were possible thanks to strong institutional and governmental support. FCV President Antonio Rodrigues played a fundamental role in the development of volleyball in Cape Verde within this project. His leadership, strategic vision and institutional commitment were crucial for creating an environment conducive to the sustainable growth of beach volleyball in the country. Minister of Youth and Sports Carlos do Canto contributed decisively with continuous support for national volleyball initiatives. His institutional support was essential to enable projects, events, and actions that strengthened the sport, expanding its visibility and social impact. The IDJ played a central role in providing institutional support to the project, offering administrative support, coordination, and encouragement for sporting activities. The IDJ’s work reinforced the project’s credibility and ensured better conditions for its execution.
“Investing in beach volleyball represents the ambition and dream that this small nation, but enormous in talent, can also conquer the high levels in sports,” IDJ President Jose Eduardo said. “The residency of a highly competent coach in the teaching, development and practice of beach volleyball allows us to develop the sport from the ground up, training teachers who work in school sports, but also to continue the work that has been developed at the elite level of beach volleyball, seeking the Olympic dream.”
