German beach volleyball player Axel Hager partnered Jörg Ahmann at both the 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Olympics. They tied ninth at Atlanta and surprisingly won the bronze medal at Sydney. Both were seen as pioneers of beach volleyball in Germany and the Ahmann-Hager-Arena at Timmerndorfer Strand was named in their honour.
Hager played volleyball from 1981, and moved to beach volleyball in 1990. With Ahmann he won the German nationals 1993, and 1995-98. Hager also won bronze at the 1994 European Championships, and silver two years later. In 2000, he was named European Beach Volleyball Player of the Year. From 1996-99 he was also Germany’s Beach Volleyball Player of the Year four years in succession. Hager later became a beach volleyball co-commentator with German TV channels RTL and Sport1. He also founded a sports event marketing agency at Hamburg.
Germany