Beach volleyball at the Summer Olympics

For the indoor event, see 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 2016 2020
Medalists

Beach volleyball was introduced at the Summer Olympic Games in the 1992 Games as a demonstration event, and has been an official Olympic sport since 1996.

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, at which Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos won the men's tournament, and Karolyn Kirby and Nancy Reno won the women's.

Beach volleyball was introduced as an official Olympic sport in 1996. A total of 24 teams take part in each beach volleyball Olympic tournament. Teams qualify on the basis of their performance in FIVB (Fédération Internationale de Volleyball) events over the course of about 18 months before the Olympic Games. There is a limit of two teams per country, and one spot apiece is reserved for the host country and a randomly chosen wild-card country. In the event that any Olympic region is not represented, the highest ranked team from that continent qualifies for the tournament.

Men's beach volleyball

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 first tournament, played in the 1996 Olympics, the matches were played at "Atlanta Beach" in Jonesboro, Georgia. The winners of the semifinals played for the gold and silver medals. The losers of the semifinal played for third and fourth places. The final was contested between the Americans Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes versus Mike Dodd and Mike Whitmarsh. Kiraly is so far the only person with Olympic medals in both indoor and beach volleyball since he had won the gold medal indoors in the tournament of 1984 as well as 1988 in Seoul, South Korea.

The beach volleyball tournament 0f 2000 was played 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 held in the Faliro Coastal Zone Olympic Complex, in Athens, Greece. The 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 and Herrera of Spain.

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

The 2012 tournament was played at the Horse Guards Parade in London.

Women's beach volleyball

Natalie Cook and Kerri Pottharst at the 2000 tournament.

In Atlanta, Georgia, in 1996, there were eighteen teams entered, and the championship match was played between two Brazilian teams: Jackie Silva and Sandra Pires versus Mônica Rodrigues and Adriana Samuel.

At the Sydney Olympics of 2000, the number of teams was increased to 24. One of the two Australian teams, Natalie Cook and Kerri Pottharst, won the gold medal over the Brazilians Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede.

Behar and Bede of Brazil reached the final match again in 2004 in Athens, Greece, but they were defeated by Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh of the United States.

In 2008 in China, May-Treanor and Walsh Jennings were victorious again by defeating the Chinese team of Tian Jia and Wang Jie in the finals.

In 2012 in England May-Treanor and Walsh Jennings won for the third consecutive Olympiad by defeating the other American team of Kessy and Ross in the final match.

It is notable that in each Olympiad so far since 1996, there has been a country that won two medals out of three. The Brazilians won the gold and silver medals in 1996, and then the silver and bronze medals in 2000. Next, the Americans won the gold and bronze medals in 2004. Then the Chinese won the silver and the bronze medals in 2008.

Finally, two American teams won the gold medal and the silver medal in 2012.

Competition formula

1996

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

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 six 3rd place 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 (repechage) match.

Medal tables

Men's

Year	Host		Gold medal match				Bronze medal match
			Gold Medalists	Score	Silver Medalists		Bronze Medalists	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		Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann	2–1	Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego		Mārtiņš Pļaviņš and Jānis Šmēdiņš	2–1	Nummerdor and Schuil
2016 Details	Rio de Janeiro

Women's

Year	Host		Gold medal match				Bronze medal match
			Gold Medalists	Score	Silver Medalists		Bronze Medalists	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		Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor	2–0	April Ross and Jennifer Kessy		Juliana Silva and Larissa França	2–1	Xue Chen and Zhang Xi
2016 Details	Rio de Janeiro

Summary

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)	6	2	1	9
2	Brazil (BRA)	2	6	3	11
3	Australia (AUS)	1	0	1	2
	Germany (GER)	1	0	1	2
5	China (CHN)	0	1	1	2
6	Spain (ESP)	0	1	0	1
7	Canada (CAN)	0	0	1	1
	Latvia (LAT)	0	0	1	1
	Switzerland (SUI)	0	0	1	1
Total		10	10	10	30

Participating nations

Nation	1996		2000		2004		2008		2012		Years
	W	M	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
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
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
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	-
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	-	-	-	-	-	-
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		24

See also

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

External links

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