Alexander Horst
Alexander Horst is an Austrian professional beach volleyball player. He currently plays on the FIVB World Beach Volleyball Tour with partner Clemens Doppler. Horst found most success with partner Florian Gosch on the FIVB World Beach Volleyball Tour, however a knee injury forced Gosch into early retirement in autumn 2010.
Horst and teammate Florian Gosch represented Austria at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. His career highlights include a 5th place showing at the Beijing Games, a 2nd place at the 2009 European Beach Volleyball Championships in Sochi, Russia, and a 2nd place at the Stare Jablonki Grand Slam in Poland in 2012.
Professional career
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, Norway, the Beach Volleyball World Championships in Gstaad, Switzerland and the European Beach Volleyball Championships in Spain. With 2 other 9th-place finishes at open tournaments along with a bronze medal at Åland, Finland, 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, China. 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 European Beach Volleyball Championships in Sochi, Russia.2010
Best finishes in 2010 include a 7th place showing early in the season in Shanghai, 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 Beach Volleyball Tour with new partner and beach volleyball rookie Daniel Müllner. Their best showing was a 17th place in the 2011 Beach Volleyball World Championships in Rome.On 21 October 2011 the pair officially announced their split. Speculation began immediately of an Alexander Horst / 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.