Volleyball

The dynamic, competitive sport of Volleyball will be staged at historic Earls Court during the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Key facts

Venue: Earls Court

Date: Saturday 28 July – Sunday 12 August

Medal events: 2

Athletes: 288 (144 men, 144 women: 12 teams in each event)

In 1895, William G Morgan devised a game he called ‘mintonette’, which he designed as a gentle alternative to basketball for older members of his YMCA gym. A century later, Volleyball is anything but gentle – few sports on the Olympic programme offer such fast, furious and exhilarating action.

The basics

Volleyball is played by two teams of six on an 18m x 9m indoor court divided by a net (2.43m high for men, 2.24m for women). The object of the game is to land the ball in the opposition’s half of the court.

Each team is allowed three touches of the ball before it must cross over the net. The key attacking move is the set and spike, in which a player feeds the ball (the set) for a teammate to power it into the opposition’s court (the spike). Volleyball requires amazing power and astonishing reactions: in the men’s game, the ball can reach speeds in excess of 130km/h.

At London 2012, both the men’s and women’s Volleyball competitions will begin with a preliminary phase: the 12 teams in each event will be divided into two pools of six, and each team will play every other team in their pool. The eight best teams from this phase will qualify for the knockout phase, with the winners of the semi-finals eventually going head to head for the gold.

Olympic Volleyball, past and present

Volleyball made its Olympic debut at the 1964 Games, with competitions for both men and women. At Beijing in 2008, the gold medals were won by the USA (men) and Brazil (women).

At London 2012, the Volleyball competition will be held at Earls Court, a popular multi-purpose venue that first opened its doors in 1937

Volleyball
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