The sun. The sand. The screaming spike sent "sizzling the pits" for a match winner. It's summertime at the beach, and one of the hottest sports on the Programme is ready to heat up the Olympic Games.
Beach volleyball, a sport born in California and nurtured in Rio de Janeiro, Marseille and Almeria, has come of age in Atlanta. In the five years leading to its Olympic debut, the sport has already experienced a meteoric rise in worldwide popularity. More than 200 national federations and 50 million enthusiastic players have made the game as fashionable as it is physical while challenging the public's long-held affection for the indoor game.
Although beach volleyball is making its first full-medal appearance at the Olympic Games, two athletes have already made a visit to the Olympic victory podium. Karch Kiraly helped lead the United States' six-player team to gold medals 1984 and 1988 while Marco KLOCH won a silver medal for the Netherlands in 1992.
But while many of the game's stars honed their skills on the indoor courts, mastery of the hard court game doesn't always guarantee success in the sand. Some Eastern European teams with long records of indoor success are conspicuously absent from the beach tournament. But the beach also has made contenders out of some countries not traditionally successful in the indoor game. The Brazilian women have never won a medal in Olympic indoor volleyball but two teams from Brazil rank among the contenders for the top prize in Atlanta. Likewise, Norway has never qualified for an indoor Olympic tournament, but could capture a medal in the men's beach event.
In Atlanta, the tournament features 24 men's teams and 18 women's teams competing in a double-elimination format. Teams were selected based on their FIVB world ranking and finishes in World Championship Series tournaments. As the host country, the United States qualified three men's and three women's teams to the tournament, with the final two pairs of teams earning their Olympic berths at the U.S. Olympic trials. Other countries may qualify a maximum of two teams in both the men's and women's tournaments.
While lucrative prize money and endorsement opportunities have become commonplace in the event, the Olympic gold medal could be the biggest prize of all. And for the sport's first-ever Olympic champions, one thing remains certain: for all the sun, sand and spikes, it won't be just another day at the beach.
This is an official publication of the Atlanta Committee for
the Olympic Games Sports Publication Department. Written by Howard
Thomas.
| An estimated 5.3 million visted Centennial Olympic Park between opening day - 13 July - and closing day - 4 August, making the park the most single most visited Olympic site during the Games. |