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.
Charles Frederick "Karch" Kiraly is an American volleyball player, coach, and broadcast announcer. He was a central part of the U.S National Team that won gold medals at the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games. He went on to win the gold medal again at the 1996 Olympic Games, the first Olympic competition to feature beach volleyball. He is the only player to have won Olympic medals of any color in both the indoor and beach volleyball categories. He played college volleyball for the UCLA Bruins, where his teams won three national championships under head coach Al Scates. Kiraly is widely regarded as the greatest male volleyball player of all time.
The Fédération Internationale de Volleyball, 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.
The Asian Volleyball Confederation, commonly known by the acronym AVC, is the continental governing body for the sports of indoor, beach, and grass volleyball in Asia and Oceania. It has 65 member associations, located in the Asia-Pacific region, but excludes four transcontinental countries with territory in both Asia and Europe – Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia, and Türkiye – along with Armenia, Cyprus, and Israel, which are members of the CEV.
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.
Cyprus Volleyball Federation (CVF) (Greek: Kυπριακή Oμοσπονδία Πετοσφαίρισης, Κ.Ο.ΠΕ) (Turkish: Kıbrıs Voleybol Federasyonu (KVF)) is the governing body of volleyball in Cyprus. It organises the first division, second division leagues and a cup competition.
Todd Jonathan Rogers is an American professional beach volleyball player who is an Olympic and FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship gold medalist. He and his former partner, Phil Dalhausser, were the 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 AVP Tour champions.
Volleyball in Canada dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. Today, the sport is played at various levels of competition throughout the country.
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.
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 Nestea European Championship Tour is a European beach volleyball tour organised by the European Volleyball Confederation (CEV). It is the highest ranked European series of beach volleyball tournaments.
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 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships were staged from 26 June to 5 July 2015 in The Hague, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Apeldoorn, Netherlands. The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships are organized every two years and Netherlands hosted the event for the first time. 48 teams per gender entered the competition making 96 total. The winners of the event qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
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.
The FIVB Men's Volleyball World Championship is an international volleyball competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. The initial gap between championships was variable, but since 1962, they were held every four years. The tournament will be held biennially starting in 2025.
The Beach Volleyball Major Series was an international series of beach volleyball tournaments from 2015 to 2020. The tournaments consisted of Tour Stops and formed part of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour. The series concluded with the FIVB World Tour Finals.
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.
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.
Snow volleyball is a winter team sport played by two teams of three players on a snow court divided by a net. The objective of each team is to score points by sending a ball over the net so as to ground it on the opponent's court, and to prevent the same effort by the opponent. A team is allowed up to three touches to return the ball across the net, and individual players may not touch the ball twice consecutively.
2025 Beach Volleyball World Championships 
Czech Republic (men) 
United States (women)
Brazil (men; 7 titles)
