FIVB Beach Volleyball Open in Lucerne, Switzerland for the first time

One of six new venues the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 2015 calendar, Lucerne, Switzerland will host the double-gender FIVB Lucerne Open. The Lucerne event, to be held May 12 to 17, will mark the 15th straight year a men’s competition will be held in Switzerland and 16th consecutive year that a women’s tournament will take place. Lausanne, Switzerland, is the headquarters of the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) and this will be just the first time that Switzerland will be the site of more than one FIVB World Tour event in a single year.

A total of 29 previous FIVB World Tour events have been staged in the picturesque Swiss village of Gstaad, including 14 straight men’s events and 15 consecutive women’s events.

This year’s FIVB Gstaad Major Series will be third of three events that are part of the new FIVB Swatch Beach Volleyball Major Series. The FIVB World Tour will visit Gstaad from July 7 to 12.

Through the 2014 event, Switzerland has hosted a total of 29 FIVB World Tour events (14 men, 15 women) with all of them being held in Gstaad with Brazil leading the medal count in both genders. In the men’s totals after 14 events, Brazil has 19 medals, followed by USA with eight, Germany with six, Switzerland three, and with one men’s medal each are Argentina, Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia and Spain.

After 15 FIVB World Tour women’s events held in Switzerland through 2014, Brazil leads the medal parade with 18 total medals followed by the USA with 11, China with eight, German with three and with one each women’s medals in Gstaad are Australia, Czech Republic, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 2015 calendar will include five FIVB Grand Slams, the new FIVB Swatch Major Series of three events, six FIVB Opens and a special FIVB Swatch Beach Volleyball Season Final in the United States.

The showcase event will be the $1 million FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships The Netherlands 2015.

Lucerne is a city in central in Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the Canton of Lucerne and the capital of the district of the same name. With a population of about 80,501 people, Lucerne is the most populous city in Central Switzerland, and a nexus of transportation, telecommunications and government of this region. The city's urban area consists of 17 cities and towns located in three different cantons with an overall population of about 250,000 people.

Because of its location on the shore of Lake Lucerne (der Vierwaldstättersee), within sight of Mount Pilatus and Rigi in the Swiss Alps, Lucerne has long been a destination for tourists. One of the city's famous landmarks is the Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke), a wooden bridge first erected in the 14th century.

A total of 14 countries will host events this year as the FIVB World Tour 2015 also begins the Olympic qualification process with all FIVB World Tour events (except the World Tour Finals) in 2015 up until June 13, 2016 counting towards the Olympic Ranking in order to determine the 15 vacancies for each gender that will take part in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

The 2015 FIVB World Ranking system will again include FIVB Beach Volleyball Grand Slam and Open events along with additional pre-approved events at the inter-continental, continental and national levels.

Implemented in 2013, the format of all the FIVB Beach Volleyball international tournaments – whether FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, FIVB Beach Volleyball Grand Slam or FIVB Beach Volleyball Open – are the same, featuring pool play followed by single elimination knockout rounds.

The 2014-2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Continental Cup also returns this year as it starts its portion of the qualification process for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in Brazil.