When they stand on the beach at Shiokaze Park ready to take on world number one team Norway in their Olympic debut, their families will be front and centre in their mind.

Schumann and McHugh struggle to find words to express how grateful they are for having support networks that care so deeply about them, even more so now that they have both started families of their own. Schumann recently married his wife Sarah, while McHugh became a father in late 2019 and is expecting another child with wife Denai, due in October. 

“Our wives have sacrificed more than anybody else for us over the past ten years. They are both so strong and have managed not only to deal with the situation, but to keep supporting us as well,” Schumann said.

“My wife, she's my rock,” confirmed McHugh, who also had to go through multiple surgeries over the last couple of years, including five knee surgeries and a shoulder reconstruction.

“She’s put up with me through all that. She’s the one person that keeps me on the straight and narrow and keeps reminding me how lucky I am to play sports for a living. She keeps pushing me to be the best person I can be on and off the court. 

“Our families and close friends are very special to us, without them we absolutely wouldn’t be there,” Schumann said. “But even if there will be just the two of us standing here on the court in Tokyo, hopefully our families and our close friends will still feel like they’re part of it. 

As COVID-19 forced a break in the 2020 international beach volleyball competition calendar, Schumann and McHugh were unable to play on the World Tour. With no tournament prizes up for grabs, the pair had to go back to truck driving and school teaching to continue supporting their families. 

McHugh and Schumann’s journey to Tokyo has been a long one, an adventure punctuated by great highs, including home gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, but also painful setbacks and failed attempts at Olympic qualification. 

“For us it’s been a lot longer than five years,” confirmed Schumann. “But we’ve always stuck to our guns, even though this last Olympic cycle did throw up some additional challenges for sure. It’s been a pretty wild ride.”

“For us to get to this point, after being part of the national team for 10 years, having been through three Olympic cycles and two failed Continental Cup attempts, for us to go to Thailand and get the job done was an extraordinary achievement,” McHugh said.

Schumann and McHugh clinched qualification by winning the Asian Beach Volleyball Continental Cup in Thailand in late June. The tournament featured two teams from each participating country and teammates Max Guehrer and Zach Schubert were instrumental in securing an Olympic berth for Australia. 

“Sadly we were only able to qualify one position for Tokyo through that process, but we wouldn’t be having this conversation without Max and Zach’s help. We’re going to be forever in debt to those guys for their commitment to the process,” McHugh said.

Realising their dream at a more mature sporting age, overcoming so many challenges in the process, arguably made Schumann and McHugh able to appreciate even more how special their achievement is. They both get quite emotional at the idea of finally entering the very selected group of Australian athletes who can call themselves Olympians. In fact, only eight male volleyball players have ever competed at the Olympic Games for Australia, including one of their coaches Andrew Schacht, Australia’s last male beach volleyball Olympian in 2008.

“We know that we will be part of a very exclusive club and Damien and I don’t take that lightly,” McHugh said.

“It may sound stupid because I am 33, but I am really excited at being able to put on the Australian track suit and the Olympic uniform. There were a lot of years when it looked like this dream was so far off,” said Schumann.

“Hopefully our example will also inspire people to continue chasing their dreams and give everything they have to make them happen.

“It shows that the important thing in life is to give it a crack, look back and have no regrets. If we can inspire people to do that, that’s really something special,” he said. 

“Don’t take no for an answer,” McHugh said. “Just go back and work harder.”

Dom Sullivan