Beach volleyball at the Summer Olympics

:"For the current Summer Olympics, see Beach volleyball at the 2008 Summer Olympics"Beach volleyball was introduced at the Summer Olympic Games in the 1992 Games, and has been an official Olympic sport since 1996, after a demonstration event in 1992.

The United States has won a gold medal at every Olympic beach volleyball tournament, in either the men's or the women's competition, since 1996. Brazil has won gold or silver, every men's or women's tournament since 1996.

Winning the Olympics is considered to be the highest honor in international beach volleyball, followed by the World Championships, and the World Tour of the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) for men and women.

History

Origins

Beach volleyball was a demonstration sport at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, where Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos won the men's tournament, and Karolyn Kirby and Nancy Reno won the women's.

It was introduced as an official Olympic event in 1996. A total of 24 teams participate in each beach volleyball Olympic tournament. Teams qualify on the basis of their performance in FIVB events over the course of approximately 18 months leading up to the Olympics. There is a limit of two teams per country, and one spot each is reserved for the host country and a randomly chosen wildcard country. In the event that any continent is not represented, the highest ranked team from that continent qualifies for the tournament.

Men's beach volleyball

Women's beach volleyball

In the inaugural tournament in the 1996 Olympics, the matches were in the Atlanta Beach in Jonesboro, Georgia (nearby host city Atlanta). There were eighteen participating couples, with the finals between Brazilians Silva/Pires and Rodrigues/Samuel. The 2000 tournament was in Bondi Beach, a suburb of Sydney. The number of couples raised to 24, and benefitted from playing at home, Cook/Pottharst of Australia won the Gold Medal over then-leaders of the FIVB ranking Adriana/Shelda of Brazil.

In the 2004 Summer Olympics the tournament was disputed in the Faliro Coastal Zone Olympic Complex, in Athens, Greece. The number of couples remained at 24, but following a FIVB change of rules in 2001, the scoring was changed from sets of 15 points in a superseded sideout system to sets of 21 points in a rally point system. [http://www.bvbinfo.com/news.asp?ID=409] Adriana/Shelda got to the finals again, but were defeated by Walsh/May of the United States.

The 2008 tournament was disputed in the Beach Volleyball Ground, located in the Chaoyang Park in Beijing. Walsh/May (now using the name May-Treanor) won again, defeating Chinese couple Tian Jia/Wang in the finals.

It is notable that so far every edition of the Olympics had a country winning two medals (Brazil was Gold and Silver in 1996 and Silver and Bronze in 2000, while the United States won Gold and Bronze in 2004 and China won Silver and Bronze in 2008).

Competition formula

* 24 teams participate in each event
* Teams qualify by accumulating points in FIVB Olympic Qualification Tournaments
* 1 host nation team is prequalified
* At most 2 teams from any country may qualify (not counting the host nation's guaranteed berth)
* In the event of an unrepresented continent, the top team from that continent will qualify
* Each team consists of exactly 2 players--no substitutions
* Teams are divided into 6 pools of 4 teams each
* Only last place teams in each pool will be eliminated
* Top 18 teams after pool play participate in a single-elimination tournament, with a play-off for third place

Medal tables

Men's

Participating nations

ee also

*Volleyball at the Summer Olympics

References

External links

* [http://www.fivb.ch/EN/BeachVolleyball/index.asp Beach volleyball] at the Official website of the FIVB
* [http://www.olympic.org/uk/sports/programme/disciplines_uk.asp?DiscCode=BV Beach volleyball] at the Official website of the IOC