Paris 2024 Olympic Games: calendar, date, location, history… Everything you need to know about volleyball

Le volley-ball. Midi Libre – JEAN-MICHEL MART

Avant les Jeux Olympiques (26 juillet-11 août), découvrez le mode d’emploi de toutes les disciplines. Focus sur le volley-ball.

The origins

Volleyball was invented in 1895 by the American William G. Morgan, under the name "mintonette", as a gentle alternative to basketball. It was not until 1918 that the number of players was fixed at six per team.

Four years later, the principle of a maximum of three touches of the ball in a row per team was adopted. Volleyball made its Olympic debut in 1964 in Tokyo and it was in 2000 that the first Olympic tournament was played with a point scored in each exchange and with a libero.

The Trials

A men's tournament, a women's tournament.

Volleyball pits two teams against each other, separated by a 2.43 m high net (2.24 m for women) on a court 18 m long and 9 m wide.

The goal of each team is to get the ball to touch the ground in the opponent's court, by making it go over the net. The classic attack move is the smash over the net, which can sometimes send the ball at over 130 km/h.

Each team has three players at the net and three players at the back of the court. Each team is allowed to have a libero among its players, that is, a specialized defender who cannot make attacking shots. The libero wears a uniform of a different color from the rest of his team.

Matches are played to the best of five sets. It takes 25 points to win the first four sets, the last being played by just 15 points. All sets must be won with a margin of at least two points.

The competition

Format : The twelve teams in the men's and women's tournaments are divided into three groups of four in which each faces its three opponents.

The two best teams from each group and the two best third-placed teams qualify for the quarter-finals then eliminate each other until the final for the gold medal. Bronze is awarded to the winner of the match between the two losers of the semi-finals.

The Kiraly legend

Before leading the United States women's team to a first Olympic title three years ago in Tokyo, Karch Kiraly, 63, wrote his legend as a player. The man who is still the coach of the Americans is in fact the only volleyball player (men and women combined) to have won a medal both indoor and in beach volleyball. And not just any gold: gold every time, with a double in 1984 and 1988 then the first Olympic beach volleyball title, in 1996 in Atlanta.

The fall of the Cuban women

If the Cuban men's selection manages to exist on the international scene, its female counterpart has tumbled in the world rankings after having reigned over the world in the 1990s.

After breaking Japanese and Soviet hegemony in the late 1970s, the Cuban women won eight international competitions in a row from 1991 to 2000, including the Olympic Games in 1992, 1996 and 2000. They have not participated in the Olympics since 2008 and will miss the 2024 edition again.

The calendar

Dates of competitions: from July 27 to August 11, alternating between women's and men's tournaments.< /p>

The Olympic site

Volleyball matches are played at the Arena Paris Sud 1, hall N.1 of the exhibition center, Porte de Versailles, with a capacity of 12,500 seats.< /p>