Beach volleyball at the Summer Olympics

Beach volleyball at the Summer Olympics
Beach volley pictogram
Governing body	FIVB
Events	2 (men: 1; women: 1)
Games
1896 • 1900 • 1904 • 1908 • 1912 • 1920 1924 • 1928 • 1932 • 1936 • 1948 • 1952 1956 • 1960 • 1964 • 1968 • 1972 • 1976 1980 • 1984 • 1988 • 1992 • 1996 • 2000 2004 • 2008 • 2012
Medalists

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 in 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

This section requires expansion.

Dalhausser and Rogers celebrate their gold medal win in 2008.

The men's tournament has had a constant number of teams, with 24 couples in each edition.

In the inaugural tournament in the 1996 Olympics, the matches were in the Atlanta Beach in Jonesboro, Georgia (nearby host city Atlanta). Semifinal winners played for the first and second places; semifinal losers played for third and fourth places. The finals were between Americans Kiraly/Steffes and Dodd/Whitmarsh. Kiraly is so far the only person with Olympic medals in beach and indoor volleyball, having won the 1984 tournament.

The 2000 tournament was in Bondi Beach, a suburb of Sydney. The winners were again an American team, Blanton/Fonoimoana, defeating Brazilians Zé Marco/Ricardo (the former had competed in Atlanta) in the finals.

In the 2004 Summer Olympics the tournament was disputed in the Faliro Coastal Zone Olympic Complex, in Athens, Greece. Brazilians Emanuel/Ricardo (the former being a veteran of two Olympics, and the latter a silver medalist in 2000) won the gold medal, defeating Bosma/Herrera of Spain.

The 2008 tournament was disputed in the Beach Volleyball Ground, located in the Chaoyang Park in Beijing. In an upset, reigning champions Emanuel and Ricardo were defeated by compatriots Márcio Araújo (who competed in Athens) and Fábio Luiz in the semifinal. The Brazilians were then defeated by Americans Rogers/Dalhausser in the final.

The 2012 tournament is set to be disputed at the Horse Guards Parade in London.

Women's beach volleyball

This section requires expansion.

Natalie Cook and Kerri Pottharst at the 2000 tournament.

In Atlanta 1996, there were eighteen participating female couples, with the finals between Brazilians Silva/Pires and Rodrigues/Samuel.

On Sydney 2000, 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.

Adriana/Shelda got to the finals again in Athens 2004, but were defeated by Walsh/May of the United States.

On Beijing 2008, 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

1996

A double-elimination tournament was played for both men and women until a total of four teams qualify for the semifinals: the two finalist teams of the winners bracket and the two finalist teams of the elimination bracket. The men's tournament had 24 teams, and the women's had 16.

Competitors were selected through a detailed Olympic qualification process which saw the participation of a total of 587 men's and women's athletes from 46 countries. Each country could qualify up to two teams - host country United States had two spots already guaranteed, with the doubles selected through Olympic Beach Trials held in Baltimore, Maryland.

2000

Following an expansion on the women's tournament, both competitions had 24 teams. The format became single elimination, preceded by a preliminary round to define the round of 16 teams - the twelve winners of the preliminary games automatically qualified, while the twelve defeated teams played two elimination rounds to get the remaining four spots.

The teams qualify by accumulating points in FIVB Olympic Qualification Tournaments, with one of the host nation having a guaranteed berth and another having the possibility of qualifying through the ranking.

The Faliro Coastal Zone Olympic Complex hosted the 2004 tournament.

2004

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.^[1]

The format had the 24 competing teams were split equally into six pools of four. The top two teams from each pool and the four best third placed teams progressed through to a single-elimination tournament of sixteen teams.

The qualifying added a continental quota - in the event of an unrepresented continent, the top team from that continent earned a spot.

2008 and 2012

The six pools of four format was retained, but the qualifying for third-placed teams was changed. Of the 6 teams, two were directly qualified to the playoffs. Of the four remaining third placed teams, another two teams get to the playoffs through winning a lucky loser match.

Medal tables

Men's

Year	Host		Gold medal match				Bronze medal match
			Champions	Score	Runners-up		3rd place	Score	4th place
1996 Details	Atlanta		Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes	2–0	Michael Dodd and Mike Whitmarsh		John Child and Mark Heese	2–0	João Brenha and Miguel Maia
2000 Details	Sydney		Dain Blanton and Eric Fonoimoana	2–0	Zé Marco de Melo and Ricardo Santos		Axel Hager and Jörg Ahmann	2–0	João Brenha and Miguel Maia
2004 Details	Athens		Ricardo Santos and Emanuel Rego	2–0	Javier Bosma and Pablo Herrera		Stefan Kobel and Patrick Heuscher	2–1	Julien Prosser and Mark Williams
2008 Details	Beijing		Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers	2–1	Fábio Luiz and Márcio Araújo		Ricardo Santos and Emanuel Rego	2–0	Renato "Geor" Gomes and Jorge "Gia" Terceiro
2012 Details	London
2016 Details	Rio de Janeiro

Women's

Year	Host		Gold medal match				Bronze medal match
			Champions	Score	Runners-up		3rd place	Score	4th place
1996 Details	Atlanta		Jackie Silva and Sandra Pires	2–0	Adriana Samuel and Mônica Rodrigues		Natalie Cook and Kerri Pottharst	2–0	Barbra Fontana and Linda Hanley
2000 Details	Sydney		Natalie Cook and Kerri Pottharst	2–0	Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede		Adriana Samuel and Sandra Pires	2–0	Yukiko Takahashi and Mika Teru Saiki
2004 Details	Athens		Kerri Walsh and Misty May	2–0	Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede		Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs	2–1	Natalie Cook and Nicole Sanderson
2008 Details	Beijing		Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor	2–0	Tian Jia and Wang Jie		Xue Chen and Zhang Xi	2–0	Renata Ribeiro and Talita Antunes
2012 Details	London
2016 Details	Rio de Janeiro

Summary

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)	5	1	1	7
2	Brazil (BRA)	2	5	2	9
3	Australia (AUS)	1	0	1	2
4	China (CHN)	0	1	1	2
5	Spain (ESP)	0	1	0	1
6	Canada (CAN)	0	0	1	1
	Germany (GER)	0	0	1	1
	Switzerland (SUI)	0	0	1	1

Participating nations

Nation	1996		2000		2004		2008		Years
	W	M	W	M	W	M	W	M
Angola	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	19th	1
Argentina	-	14th	-	9th	-	9th	-	19th	4
	-	-	-	19th	-	-	-	-
Australia	3rd	9th	1st	9th	4th	4th	5th	9th	4
	7th	-	5th	17th	9th	9th	-	-
	-	-	17th	-	-	-	-	-
Austria	-	-	-	9th	-	17th	5th	5th	3
	-	-	-	-	-	19th	-	9th
Brazil	1st	9th	2nd	2nd	2nd	1st	4th	2nd	4
	2nd	9th	3rd	9th	5th	9th	5th	3rd
Belgium	-	-	-	-	-	-	9th	-	1
Nation	1996		2000		2004		2008		Years
	W	M	W	M	W	M	W	M
Bulgaria	-	-	17th	-	9th	-	-	-	2
Canada	17th	3rd	-	5th	5th	5th	-	-	3
	-	17th	-	9th	-	-	-	-
China	-	-	9th	-	9th	-	2nd	9th	3
	-	-	17th	-	19th	-	3rd	-
Cuba	-	7th	9th	-	9th	17th	9th	-	4
	-	-	-	-	-	-	9th	-
Czech Republic	-	14th	9th	17th	9th	-	-	-	3
	-	-	17th	-	-	-	-	-
Estonia	-	17th	-	-	-	-	-	19th	2
Nation	1996		2000		2004		2008		Years
	W	M	W	M	W	M	W	M
France	13th	14th	9th	19th	-	19th	-	-	3
Georgia	-	-	-	-	-	-	17th	4th	1
Germany	7th	9th	9th	3rd	5th	5th	9th	5th	4
	-	-	9th	19th	9th	9th	9th	19th
Great Britain	9th	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Greece	-	-	17th	-	9th	19th	9th	-	3
	-	-	-	-	9th	-	19th	-
Indonesia	13th	17th	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Nation	1996		2000		2004		2008		Years
	W	M	W	M	W	M	W	M
Italy	13th	14th	5th	19th	5th	-	-	19th	4
	-	-	9th	-	-	-	-	-
Japan	5th	17th	4th	-	17th	-	19th	9th	4
	9th	-	17th	-	-	-	-	-
Latvia	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	9th	1
Mexico	17th	-	17th	9th	19th	-	17th	-	4
Netherlands	13th	17th	17th	-	19th	-	19th	5th	4
	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	17th
Norway	9th	7th	-	9th	17th	9th	9th	19th	4
	-	-	-	19th	19th	19th	9th	-
Nation	1996		2000		2004		2008		Years
	W	M	W	M	W	M	W	M
New Zealand	-	17th	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Portugal	-	4th	9th	4th	-	9th	-	-	3
Puerto Rico	-	-	-	-	-	19th	-	-	1
Russia	-	-	-	9th	-	-	19th	9th	2
South Africa	-	-	-	-	19th	9th	19th	-	2
Spain	-	5th	-	5th	-	2nd	-	9th	4
	-	17th	-	-	-	-	-	-
Nation	1996		2000		2004		2008		Years
	W	M	W	M	W	M	W	M
Switzerland	-	-	-	5th	19th	3rd	19th	9th	3
	-	-	-	-	-	5th	-	17th
Sweden	-	17th	-	19th	-	9th	-	-	3
United States	4th	1st	5th	1st	1st	5th	1st	1st	4
	5th	2nd	5th	5th	3rd	19th	5th	5th
	9th	5th	-	-	-	-	-	-
Nations	21		23		24		23

See also

• Volleyball at the Summer Olympics
• List of Olympic venues in volleyball

References

External links

• Beach volleyball at the Official website of the FIVB
• Beach volleyball at the Official website of the IOC

v t e Beach volleyball at the Summer Olympics 1996 women men 2000 women men 2004 women men 2008 women men Olympic beach volleyball players

v t e International beach volleyball FIVB World Ranking Olympic Games World Tour World Championships World Youth Championships Pan American Games Central American and Caribbean Games Asian Beach Games Asia and Oceania AVC – Asian Championship Africa CAVB – African Championship North America NORCECA – NORCECA Circuit South America CSV – South American Championship Europe CEV – European Tour