Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two to four 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.
Misty Elizabeth May-Treanor is an American retired professional beach volleyball player. She is a three-time Olympic gold medalist, and as of August 2012, was the most successful female beach volleyball player having won 112 tournaments in domestic and international competition.
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 Fabio Azevedo of Brazil.
Volleyball has been part of the Summer Olympics program for both men and women consistently since 1964.
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.
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.
Italy competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics, held in Beijing, China. The country sent a delegation of 344 athletes to compete.
Brazil sent a delegation to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, in August 2008. Brazilian athletes have competed in every Summer Olympic Games since 1920, except the 1928 Summer Olympics. The country is represented by the Brazilian Olympic Committee. Brazil headed to the Beijing Games with its largest Olympic delegation at the time, 277 athletes, including 132 women.
The Russian Federation competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics, held in Beijing, China, represented by the Russian Olympic Committee. Russia competed in all sports except baseball, field hockey, football, softball, and taekwondo. It ranked third in the medal table by the number of gold (24) and overall (60) medals. Russia also had 14 medals stripped for doping violations, the most of any nation at the 2008 Olympics, although in terms of gold medals it got a net positive of +1.
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.
Xue Chen is a Chinese beach volleyball player, measuring 191 centimetres in height. A 4-time Olympian, she won the bronze medal alongside Zhang Xi at the women's beach volleyball tournament of the 2008 Summer Olympics. In 2013, she won the gold medal also with Zhang at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, the first and only Asian team to do so.
The women's beach volleyball tournament at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing was held from August 9 to August 21, at the Beach Volleyball Ground at Chaoyang Park.
The men's Olympic beach volleyball tournament at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing took place at the Beach Volleyball Ground at Chaoyang Park from August 9 to August 22.
The volleyball tournaments at the 2012 Olympic Games in London were played between 28 July and 12 August.
The volleyball tournaments at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro was played between 6 and 21 August. 24 volleyball teams and 48 beach volleyball teams, total 386 athletes, participated in the tournament. The indoor volleyball competition took place at Ginásio do Maracanãzinho in Maracanã, and the beach volleyball tournament was held at Copacabana Beach, in the temporary Copacabana Stadium.
The volleyball tournaments at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo were played between 24 July and 8 August 2021. 24 volleyball teams and 48 beach volleyball teams participated in the tournament. The indoor volleyball competition took place at Ariake Arena in Ariake, and the beach volleyball tournament at Shiokaze Park, in the temporary Shiokaze Park Stadium.
Beach Volleyball at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics was held from August 17 to August 27. This was the first time beach volleyball was held at the Youth Olympics with indoor volleyball appearing at the 2010 edition. The events took place at the Nanjing Olympic Sports Center in Nanjing, China.
Sarah Lindsey Pavan is a Canadian former beach volleyball and 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 women's tournament in volleyball at the 2020 Summer Olympics was the 15th edition of the event at an Olympic Games, organised by the world's governing body, the FIVB, in conjunction with the IOC. It was held in Tokyo, Japan from 25 July to 8 August 2021. It was originally scheduled to take place from 26 July to 9 August 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the IOC and the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee announced on 24 March 2020 that the 2020 Summer Olympics would be delayed to 2021. Because of this pandemic, the games were played behind closed doors.
