The recognition was given to
Beach Volleyball as an Olympic discipline at an IOC
meeting in Monaco, opening the door for the sport to
participate in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Beach
Volleyball is now one of the most popular Olympic sports
thanks to professional athletes, a healthy and colourful
ambience, exciting competition and
entertainment, and the equal treatment of men and women.
Atlanta 1996
Atlanta
1996 was the first Olympic Beach Volleyball
competition and it was a memorable start. Twenty
four men's teams and 18 women's teams competed for
Olympic medals on Atlanta Beach in July in a 10,000-seat
stadium, with more than 107,000 spectators selling
out the six-day event. Some 600 athletes
representing 42 countries took part in the Olympic
qualifying process. The United States' Karch Kiraly
and Kent Steffes won the first men's gold medals and Brazil's
Jackie Silva and Sandra Pires won the first women's
gold medals. Kiraly had previously won two Olympic
Games gold medals in indoor Volleyball at the 1984 Los
Angeles Games and the Seoul Games in 1988. In the
men's tournament, USA's Mike Dodd and Mike Whitmarsh
picked up silver and Canada's John Child and Mark
Heese won bronze. In the women's tournament, Mônica
Rodrigues and Adriana Samuel of Brazil claimed
silver and Australia's Natalie Cook and Kerri-Ann
Pottharst won bronze.
Sydney 2000
Four years after the overwhelming success of
the first Olympic experience, Beach Volleyball become even more of a hit. The top 24 men's and
women's teams in the world competed on Bondi Beach
in a wonderful stadium seating 10,000 spectator, with modern facilities offering a top-class event
to the Olympic family of players, fans, media and
sponsors. Teams from more than 50 countries took
part in the qualifying process. Cook and Pottharst
improved on their bronze in 1996 to claim gold in
the women's competition, with Brazilian pairs
Adriana Behar and Shelda and Sandra Pires and
Adriana Samuel taking home silver and bronze,
respectively. In the men's event, USA's Dain Blanton
and Eric Fonoimoana won gold, Brazil's Ze Marco and
Ricardo silver and Germany's Jörg
Ahmann and Axel Hager bronze.
Athens 2004
With its
new 10,000-seat main stadium built in the style of a
traditional Greek amphitheatre, the Beach Volleyball
venue and its surroundings provided an amazingly
entertaining atmosphere at the Athens Games in 2004.
For the first time in an Olympic Games, an
entertainment programme was implemented with the
involvement of 12 dancers, DJs, multilingual
announcements and production managers. More than 60
countries took part in the qualifying process, with
24
men's and
women's competing in Athens. Brazil's
Ricardo and Emanuel won men's gold, with Spain's
Javier Bosma and Pablo Herrera winning silver and
Patrick Heuscher and Stefan Kobel taking bronze. In
the women's event, USA's Misty May-Treanor and Kerri
Walsh won gold, Brazil's Adriana Behar and Shelda
silver and USA's Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs
bronze.
Beijing 2008
The fourth
Olympic Beach Volleyball competition at Beijing 2008
again saw 24
women's and 24
men's teams competing
against each other, this time over 14 days (after
six continuous days in Atlanta, 10 days in Sydney
and 12 in Athens) of action-packed fun on the sand.
There were a total of 108 matches, comprising 54
men's and 54 women's matches. The 12,000-seat
Chaoyang Park Beach Volleyball Ground was the
stunning venue for the Olympic Beach Volleyball
Tournaments. May-Treanor and Walsh won their second
straight Olympic gold, beating Chinese pairs Jia
Tian and Jie Wang and Zhang Xi and Xue Chen into
second and third place, the two pairs collecting
China's first-ever Beach Volleyball Olympic medals.
Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers made it a USA double
on the sand with gold in the men's event, with
Marcio Araujo and Fabio Magalhaes of Brazil
finishing second and Emanuel and Ricardo claiming
third.
London 2012 ...
Olympic Beach Volleyball in 2012 will have
another spectacular setting: Horse Guards Parade, just
off Whitehall in central London, will be hosting the
competition.
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