Paris will host volleyball matches for nearly the whole 2024 Olympic season. Starting on Saturday, July 27, the competition will run until August 11, which also happens to be the day of the closing ceremony.
Early in the 20th century, volleyball gained popularity swiftly and spread to other countries, including Canada, Cuba, and Japan. The sport's earliest rulebooks were created in the early 1900s, and the Federation International de Volleyball, the first international federation, was founded in 1947.
The following year featured the inaugural men's world championships, while the women's division made its debut in 1952.
Volleyball Olympics History
Olympic volleyball originated as an unofficial exhibition sport during the Summer Olympics in Paris in 1924. In 1957, a special tournament was held in Sofia, Bulgaria during the 53rd IOC session. Success at the competition resulted in the formal introduction of the sport in 1964.
In 1964, volleyball had its Olympic debut in Tokyo. Each team was put into a single pool and played each other once in a single round-robin style for both the men's and women's events. This structure continued until the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich when a pool round and a final round consisting of quarter-finals, semifinals, and a final were implemented to decide the medal winners.
In the 1980s, Soviet and Cuban teams frequently made it to the Olympic platform; in the 1990s, teams from Italy and the People's Republic of China did the same. The only 3 National Olympic Committees with more than ten medals each are the former Soviet Union, Brazil, and the United States, who dominate the Olympic volleyball medal chart.
Volleyball Olympics Rules
- Two teams of six players compete in volleyball on an indoor court that is 18 meters long and 9 meters broad.
- When a play is made or the ball lands inside the court's borders, a point is scored.
- Each match is best-of-five sets, with the winning side being the first to 25 points by a two-point margin.
- After a maximum of three straight touches, teams are required to advance the ball into the half of their opponent.
- To block the ball, the opposing side usually puts its fittest players close to the net.
The ball can go up to 130 km/h during a volleyball match, especially after a powerful jump serve or smash. To block them, athletes must then have extraordinary strength and quick reflexes.
Volleyball Olympics Teams
The complete list of teams competing in this year's Olympic volleyball competitions for both men and women is as follows:
Men’s Volleyball Team
- Pool A: Canada, France, Slovenia, Serbia
- Pool B: Brazil, Egypt, Italy, Poland
- Pool C: Argentina, Japan, Germany, United States
Women’s Volleyball Teams
- Pool A: China, France, United States, Serbia
- Pool B: Brazil, Japan, Kenya, Poland
- Pool C: Turkey, Italy, Netherlands, Dominican Republic