Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two players each on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of the court. Each team also works in unison to prevent the opposing team from grounding the ball on their side of the court.
The International Volleyball Federation commonly known by the acronym FIVB. Is the international governing body for all forms of volleyball. Its headquarters are located in Lausanne, Switzerland, and its current president is Ary Graça of Brazil.
Annett Davis is an American beach volleyball player, who won the silver medal at the 1999 Beach Volleyball World Championships, alongside Jenny Johnson Jordan.
Sanne Keizer is a Dutch beach volleyball player who plays as a right-side defender with her partner Madelein Meppelink. Her career highlights include two gold, two silver and four bronze medals on the FIVB World Tour. She is a two-time European Champion and she represented the Netherlands at the 2012 Summer Olympics, finishing ninth with Marleen van Iersel.
The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour was the worldwide professional beach volleyball tour for both men and women organized by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. The World Tour was introduced 1989 for men and in 1992 for women being held yearly since then until 2021 when it was replaced by the new Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour.
The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships is the double-gender world championship for the sport of beach volleyball organized by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) the sport's global governing body. The first official edition of the event was held in Los Angeles, United States in 1997 and tournaments had been awarded every two years since then. Before 1997, ten unofficial championships not organized by the FIVB were all held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil between 1987 and 1996. The most recent World Championships took place in Mexico in 2023.
Sean Michael Rosenthal is an American beach volleyball player, playing as a defender. He is best known for his high leaping ability, which has earned him the nickname of "Superman". Rosenthal has an entourage called "Rosie's Raiders", which is composed of close friends of his who enjoy going to his various tournaments to support him. He and his former partner, Jake Gibb, represented the United States at the 2008 Olympic Games and 2012 Olympic Games in beach volleyball.
Marcin Jagoda is a male beach volleyball player from the United States.
Summer Ross is an American beach volleyball player. She was the FIVB 2010 Youth Under-19 and Junior Under-21 world champion, the only player to win both titles in the same year and was named 2010 USA Volleyball Beach Female Athlete of the Year. As of 2018, her partner is Sara Hughes.
Marta Menegatti is an Italian beach volleyball player who plays as a left-side defender with her partner Viktoria Orsi Toth. With former teammate Greta Cicolari, she achieved a career-high world ranking of No. 4 in August 2012. Her career highlights include two gold, seven silver and seven bronze medals on the FIVB World Tour. She is also the 2011 European champion and the 2013 Mediterranean Games champion, both achieved with Cicolari. Menegatti represented Italy at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics, finishing fifth and ninth respectively.
The Australia women's national volleyball team, also known as Volleyball Team Australia Women (VTAW) or the Volleyroos, is the national volleyball team of the volleyball playing nation of Australia. As of January 2021, they are ranked 40th in the world. They are a member of the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC).
Liliane Maestrini is a Brazilian beach volleyball player.
Sarah Lindsey Pavan is a Canadian beach volleyball and former indoor volleyball player. She was part of the Canada women's national volleyball team at the 2010 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship in Japan. With Melissa Humana-Paredes, she won the women's gold medal at the 2019 Beach Volleyball World Championships.
Viktoria Orsi Toth is an Italian beach volleyball player who plays as a right-side blocker. With partner Marta Menegatti, she achieved a career-high world ranking of No. 7 in June 2016. Her career highlights include two gold, three silver and two bronze medals on the FIVB World Tour.
Nina Brunner is a Swiss professional beach volleyball player who plays as a right side defender with her partner Tanja Hüberli. She is a two-time European Champion, winning the title in 2021 and 2023, the silver medallist at the 2018 and 2022 European Championships, and the bronze medalist at the 2024 Summer Olympics. With her former partner Nicole Eiholzer, she won the gold medal at the first ever European Games in 2015. Alongside Hüberli, Betschart has won combined total of 3 gold, 4 silver and 6 bronze medals on FIVB World Tour and its successor Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. Betschart / Hüberli team represented Switzerland at the 2020 Summer Olympics where they finished in ninth place and played a pivotal role at their country's triumph in the women's event of the inaugural CEV Beach Volleyball Nations Cup in 2022. They achieved a career-high World ranking of No. 2 in November 2021.
Sara Elizabeth Hughes is an American beach volleyball player. With teammate Kelly Cheng she achieved a career-high world ranking of No. 2 in August 2023. Hughes has won six tournaments on the AVP Pro Tour and seven gold medals, one silver medal, and three bronze medals on the FIVB World Tour/Pro Beach Tour.
The following were the events of volleyball for the year 2018 throughout the world.
Taylor Crabb is an American beach volleyball player who plays as a left-side defender with his partner Taylor Sander. He has won fourteen tournaments on the AVP Pro Tour, as well as one gold medal on the FIVB World Tour.
The Asian Women's Club Volleyball Championship, previously the AVC Cup Women's Club Tournament, is an annual continental club volleyball competition organised by the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC), the sport's continental governing body. The competition was first contested in 1999 in Thailand. It was not held in 2003 and 2020 due to 2002–2004 SARS outbreak and COVID-19 pandemic respectively.
