I’ve recently returned to the sand to play volleyball, and I’m becoming a big fan of the sport at the same time. Of course watching the action on the court at the highest levels is phenomenal, but I also enjoy figuring out the details of how the FIVB world tour and Olympic qualification work. Beach volleyball isn’t as easy to follow as some other professional sports. You can’t just flip to the back of your newspaper and see how your favorite team is doing. And just knowing who your favorite team is can be confusing. Last week’s final may have featured a Brazilian team, but it was Elize and Maria Clara while this week it’s Victoria and Taina. So is Brazil my team or not? Don’t let that turn you off though. The rivalries between teams from the same nation is one of the most fascinating parts of the world tour. The deeper I dig into the way things work, the more I love it, and this blog is all about sharing what I’ve learned with fellow fans..



Getting to the Olympics is top priority for the beach volleyball world this season. So, explaining the qualifying process seems like a great place for me to start sharing what I’ve learned. I found out that there are five ways to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in beach volleyball. Over the next five posts, I’ll write about them one at a time.



Pathway Number 1 – Win the 2019 World Championships.

Evandro making a dig on the way to becoming a World Champion in Vienna two years ago. Photo by Ailura and used under creative commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20180804_Beach_Volleyball_Vienna_Major_2250.jpg

This summer, from June 28th to July 7th, Hamburg, Germany will host The World Championships. It is an epic Beach Volleyball tournament that happen once every two years. Other than winning an Olympic gold medal, this is the biggest prize in beach volleyball. This year the prize is even greater because the winners earn a place at the Tokyo Olympics. That’s why this is pathway number one.



In addition to getting a place in the Olympics and the title of World Champion, there will also be a huge amount of prize money and a lot of points for the world tour rankings. The intensity of the competition will make this a very special event, but the city of Hamburg will make it pretty great also. They have hosted the World Tour finals two years in a row and the Germans proved that they know how to throw a volleyball themed party. This tournament happens early in the season, but it will probably be the highlight of the summer.

What’s the Format for the World Championship?

The World Championships consist of 48 men’s teams and 48 for the women. That is a huge tournament and to explain how the 48 teams get chosen would probably take five blog posts, so this will be quick. The top 23 teams in the World Rankings get to play with a maximum of four teams from one country. Also, the Germans get a guaranteed two more teams, because they are the hosts. There are three wild-card teams. That basically means teams that don’t qualify by the regular route but can sell a lot of tickets if they are in the field. Not totally fair, but FIVB is trying to grow the sport and gain sponsors, so that is one way to do it. That adds up to 28 so far. The last 20 come from the five regions of the volleyball world. Each region chooses their four teams in a slightly different way.

Once the teams are set they are drawn into groups for pool play. There aren’t any qualifying rounds in this tournament. Instead, everyone is put into one of 12 pools. The top two teams in each pool move on to the knockout round and the best four third place teams do too. The rest of the third place teams have a mini playoff to determine which four get to play in the knockout and which ones go home. The fourth place team in each group also gets an early exit. The knockout round is a massive 32 team single elimination tournament. It’s March Madness on sand for all of you American college basketball fans.

World Championship History

If history is any indication, the World Championships will show us who the gold medal favorites in Japan will be. Alison Cerutti and Bruno Schmidt of Brazil won the 2015 World Championships before going on to win the 2016 Olympics. Bárbara Seixas and Ágatha Bednarczuk, also of Brazil, won the 2015 World Championship and then won silver in Rio. Germany’s Kira Walkenhorst and Laura Ludwig, gold medalists from the Rio Olympics, added to their Olympic success by winning the 2017 World Championships in Vienna. So, it looks like the cream usually finds a way to rise to the top at the World Championships.

Interestingly, both the men’s and women’s champions from 2017 are no longer playing together. Defending champs from Brazil, Evandro and Andre have new partners and Walkenhorst’s retirement from the Beach World Tour means that Ludwig is going for a repeat as World Champion with a new partner, too. That means we are sure to get some new World Champs this year.

The World Championships in Hamburg are going to be amazing and if you have any vacation time during the first week of July, you should do all you can to be there and see it for yourself. If you do, take lots of pictures and send some my way. For an idea of the atmosphere at the last World Championships, watch a bit of this video from 2017 when the home team (Austria) made the final.

That is what I’ve learned about the first pathway, The World Championships. Next up, I’ll look at the new Olympic Qualification Tournament.