Beach volleyball was introduced at the Summer Olympic Games in the 1992 Games as a demonstration event, and has been an official Olympic sport since 1996.
Winning the Olympics is considered to be the highest honor in international beach volleyball, followed by the World Championships, and the World Tour of the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) for men and women.
The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. These were the fourth Summer Olympics to be hosted by the United States, making it the first country to have three different cities host the Summer Olympics. It also marked the 100th anniversary of the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, the inaugural edition of the modern Olympic Games. These were also the first Summer Olympics to be held in a different year than the Winter Olympics since the same time practice commenced in 1924, as part of a new IOC practice implemented in 1994 to hold the Summer and Winter Games in alternating, even-numbered years. The 1996 Games were the first of the two consecutive Summer Olympics to be held in a predominantly English-speaking country, preceding the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. These were also the last Summer Olympics to be held in North America until 2028, when Los Angeles will host the games for the third time.
10,318 athletes from 197 National Olympic Committees competed in 26 sports, including the Olympic debuts of beach volleyball, mountain biking and softball, as well as the new disciplines of lightweight rowing, women's swimming 4 x 200 freestyle relay, women's fencing, team rhythmic gymnastics, and women's association football. A total of 24 countries made their Summer Olympic debuts in Atlanta, including 11 former Soviet republics participating for the first time as independent nations. With a total of 101 medals, the United States topped both the gold and overall medal count for the first time since 1984 (and for the first time since 1968 in a non-boycotted Summer Olympics), also winning the most gold (44) and silver (32) medals out of all the participating nations. Notable performances during the competition included those of Andre Agassi, whose gold medal in these Games would be followed up with the French Open title in 1999, making him the first men's singles tennis player to complete the Career Golden Slam; Donovan Bailey, who set a new world record of 9.84 for the men's 100 meters; Lilia Podkopayeva, who became the second gymnast to win an individual event gold medal after winning the all-around title in the same Olympics; and the Magnificent Seven, who dramatically won the first ever U.S. gold medal in the women's artistic gymnastics team all-around.
Beach volleyball or beach volley for short, is a team sport played by two teams of two to four players each on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of the court. Each team also works together to prevent the opposing team from grounding the ball on their side of the court.
Teams are allowed up to three touches to return the ball across the net, and individual players may not touch the ball twice consecutively except after a touch off an attempted block. Making a block touch leaves only two more touches before the ball must be hit over. The ball is put in play with a serveâa hit by the server from behind the rear court boundary over the net to the opponents. The receiving team typically uses their three touches to pass the ball, set it up for an attack, and then attack the ball by sending it back over the net. Meanwhile, the team on defense typically has a blocker at the net and a defender to cover the ground. The rally continues until the ball is grounded on the playing court, goes "out", or a fault is made in the attempt to return the ball. The team that wins the rally scores a point and serves to start the following rally. The players serve in the same sequence throughout the match, changing server each time a rally is won by the receiving team.
The 1996 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, were an international summer multi-sport event held in Atlanta, Georgia, United States from July 19 to August 4, 1996. A total of 10,318 athletes representing 197 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated. The games featured 271 events in 26 sports across 37 disciplines, including the Olympic debuts of beach volleyball, mountain biking and softball. A total of 24 countries made their Summer Olympic debuts in Atlanta, including 11 former Soviet republics participating for the first time as independent nations.
79 nations received at least one medal, with 53 of them winning at least one gold medal, both of which were new records.Armenia, Belarus, Burundi, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Slovakia, Syria, Thailand, and Ukraine won their nations' first Summer Olympic gold medals. They were also the first Summer Olympic medals of any kind for Armenia, Belarus, Burundi, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Slovakia, and Ukraine. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Mozambique, Tonga, and Uzbekistan won their first Summer Olympic medals.
The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships is the double-gender world championship for the sport of beach volleyball organized by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) the sport's global governing body. The first official edition of the event was held in Los Angeles, United States in 1997 and tournaments had been awarded every two years since then. Before 1997, ten unofficial championships not organized by the FIVB were all held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil between 1987 and 1996. The most recent World Championships took place in Australia in 2025.
Winning the World Championships is considered to be one of the highest honours in international beach volleyball, surpassing the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour and being surpassed only by the beach volleyball tournament at the Summer Olympic Games.
The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour (known between 2003 and 2012 as the FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour for sponsorship reasons) was the worldwide professional beach volleyball tour for both men and women organized by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. The World Tour was introduced 1989 for men and in 1992 for women being and held yearly since then. In 2021 it was rebranded as the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour.
Several tournaments were staged throughout the year. All athletes who competed in the qualifying and main draws of the tournaments earned points in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Rankings, and after the last stage the pair that accumulated the most points during the year was declared the champion of the World Tour (only points from 75% of the tournaments in the season were considered for the ranking). Winning the World Tour was considered to be one of the highest honours in international beach volleyball, being surpassed only by the World Championships, and the Beach Volleyball tournament at the Summer Olympic Games. The Tour was historically dominated by Brazilian teams.