50 Fun Facts About Beach Volleyball

Which staple of the indoor game is banned outright in beach volleyball?

Substitutions are banned: the same two players stay on court for every point and must take turns to serve, so neither can hide a weakness behind a specialist.

What may play the ball in a beach volleyball rally?

Any body part may play the ball, so a desperate kick is legal; the one exception is the serve, which must be struck with a hand or arm.

At 20-20, how does a beach volleyball set end?

A two-point lead is required and there is no ceiling, so a tight set simply runs on past 21 until one pair gets two clear; a deciding third set is played to 15 on the same terms.

On which Hawaiian beach did beach volleyball most likely begin in 1915?

Waikiki's Outrigger Canoe Club says it began on a day when the surf was flat: bored members had nothing to do, so George 'Dad' Center bought a net and a couple of balls and set them up on the beach.

In which Californian city did the modern two-player version of beach volleyball originate?

Santa Monica saw the first recorded doubles game in 1930, when too few players turned up for six-a-side; the four who did began on a quarter of the court, doubting that two could cover it all.

What drove beach volleyball's first big boom in America during the 1930s?

The Great Depression sent Americans to the beach for cheap entertainment, and the game suited hard times: all it took was a net, a ball and a swimsuit.

What prize went to the best teams at the first beach volleyball tournament to offer one, in 1948?

A case of Pepsi was the reward, a year after the first official two-man tournament had offered no cash at all; by the mid-1970s a cigarette brand was putting up $1,500 for a tournament in San Diego.

Which California city stages the Open called the 'Wimbledon of beach volleyball'?

Manhattan Beach first held its Open in 1960, and each winning pair is honoured with a bronze, volleyball-shaped plaque on the town's pier.

Which British band, on a 1960s tour, were photographed trying beach volleyball in California?

The Beatles passed a ball around at Sorrento Beach when the game was as much a part of California life as surfing; President Kennedy watched a tournament at the same beach that decade.

Which tequila brand became pro beach volleyball's first major sponsor in the late 1970s?

Jose Cuervo signed on around the time the World Championship moved to Redondo Beach, and sponsorship grew fast: by 1980 the sport had its first sponsored tour, seven events worth $52,000.

What forced promoter Event Concepts out of pro beach volleyball at the end of 1984?

A players' strike at the World Championship in Redondo Beach did it; the AVP, formed a year earlier to protect the players' interests, then started running the tour itself.

Which 1980s film features a famous beach volleyball scene set to Kenny Loggins's 'Playing with the Boys'?

Top Gun stops for a shirtless game of doubles on the beach, and Loggins has said he chose to write for that scene because he reckoned no other songwriter would compete for it.

Which footwear brand became title sponsor of the AVP pro beach volleyball tour in 2006?

Crocs put its name on a sport played barefoot from 2006, then bought its way out of the contract after the 2009 season, a year before the tour itself shut down.

On which Rio beach was the first FIVB-sanctioned international beach volleyball tournament played in 1987?

Ipanema hosted it with $22,000 in prize money, a year after an exhibition in Rio had drawn 5,000 spectators; within two years the FIVB had launched a World Series circuit.

Why were women allowed shorts and sleeved tops in Olympic beach volleyball from 2012?

Cultural beliefs, the federation said, as qualifying drew in countries with religious and cultural dress requirements; until then the choice was a bikini or a one-piece, with a body suit for cold weather.

Which city's Olympics gave beach volleyball its debut as a full medal sport?

Atlanta staged it in 1996 far from any coast, on a man-made beach at a recreation park outside the city, and all six days of play sold out.

What usually happens when rain hits beach volleyball matches?

Play carries on in the rain, which is why the rules demand a ball that does not soak up water; the 2008 women's Olympic final in Beijing was played out in a downpour.

Which American is the only player to have won Olympic gold in both indoor and beach volleyball?

Karch Kiraly won indoor gold in 1984 and 1988 and beach gold in 1996, then won again as a coach, steering the US women's indoor team to their first Olympic title in Tokyo.

Which kind of French camp reportedly made beach volleyball its main sport in 1927?

A nudist camp at Franconville, near Paris, is said to have taken it up as the house sport; naturists were early adopters, and volleyball went on to become a staple of nudist clubs.

Which Sydney beach hosted beach volleyball at the 2000 Olympics?

Bondi got a temporary 10,000-seat stadium that some residents protested against; once play began it filled with face-painted, wig-wearing fans and became one of the hits of the Games.

Which beach volleyball player was the first to win 100 career tournaments, finishing with 139?

Sinjin Smith reached the mark first and was famous enough by 1988 for Electronic Arts to build a video game, Kings of the Beach, around him and his partner Randy Stoklos.

What did California's beach volleyball tournaments add to the official programme in the 1950s 'Beachmania' era?

Beauty contests joined the bill, and a 1957 tournament featured an actress as its 'Queen of the Beach'; the game was turning into a show as much as a sport.

Which country's pair won the women's beach volleyball gold at the Sydney 2000 Olympics?

Australia's Natalie Cook and Kerri Pottharst fell behind early in both sets of the final and fought back each time to beat Brazil's reigning world champions in front of a roaring home crowd.

Where must beach volleyball players stand to receive serve?

Anywhere they like on their own side: the beach game has no set positions, so the positional faults that catch out indoor teams cannot happen.

What did Kerri Walsh Jennings reveal weeks after her third Olympic beach volleyball gold in 2012?

Her pregnancy: she told NBC's Today show she had been five weeks along while diving around the court in London, and had guessed as much because she felt unusually moody.

What was unusual about May-Treanor and Walsh Jennings's 2004 and 2008 Olympic beach volleyball titles?

No sets lost in 14 matches across Athens and Beijing; the first pair to take one off them at an Olympics were Austria's Schwaiger sisters, in the group stage in London.

Which TV show was Misty May-Treanor training for when she ruptured her Achilles in 2008?

Dancing with the Stars cost her nearly a year of volleyball: she tore the tendon rehearsing with partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy and had to pull out of the show for surgery.

Which member of Misty May-Treanor's family played volleyball at the 1968 Olympics and starred in beach mixed doubles?

Her father, Butch May, was known as the king of mixed doubles on the beach, and the partner he won with, Barbara Grubb, became his wife and Misty's mother.

Where did Kerri Walsh Jennings play college volleyball, winning NCAA titles in 1996 and 1997?

Stanford made her a four-time first-team All-American, and she went to the Sydney 2000 Olympics as an indoor player, finishing fourth, before switching to the beach game a year later.

What did Kerri Walsh Jennings do for the first time in Olympic beach volleyball at Rio 2016?

Lose a match: she had won all 26 of her Olympic matches on the beach, across four Games, before Brazil's Ágatha and Bárbara beat her and April Ross; the Americans still recovered to take bronze.

With which partner did April Ross finally win Olympic beach volleyball gold at Tokyo 2020?

Alix Klineman had left the indoor game for the beach only in 2017, the year she teamed up with Ross; their 'A-Team' dropped just one set in Tokyo.

What did Brazilian beach volleyball champion Emanuel Rego try to give marathon runner Vanderlei de Lima in 2005?

His Olympic gold medal, won at the same Athens Games where a spectator had dragged de Lima out of the marathon lead and left him with bronze; de Lima declined the gift, offered on television.

Brazil's Olympic beach volleyball champion Alison Cerutti takes his nickname from which Ice Age character?

Manny the mammoth: Alison says people made the comparison because he was so clumsy on the beach as a beginner; it annoyed him at first, then he came round and had the mammoth tattooed.

Which American pair won the men's Olympic beach volleyball gold at Beijing 2008?

Rogers and Dalhausser lost their opening match to an unheralded Latvian pair, won every match after it, and crushed their Brazilian opponents 15-4 in the final's deciding set.

What did the first official Beach Volleyball World Championships offer men and women in 1997?

Equal prize money was built in from the start, $600,000 split evenly between the genders, and a year later every open event on the world tour paid men and women the same as well.

Which London landmark hosted the 2012 Olympic beach volleyball tournament?

Horse Guards Parade, the ceremonial ground where Trooping the Colour marks the monarch's official birthday, was turned into a beach and ringed by a temporary 15,000-seat arena.

Which country's pair became the first Europeans to win Olympic women's beach volleyball gold, at Rio 2016?

Germany's Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst beat both of Brazil's top-seeded pairs in front of their home crowd, and theirs was the first Olympic medal of any colour for European women.

Anders Mol and Christian Sørum won men's Olympic beach volleyball gold at Tokyo 2020 for which country?

Norway had never won an Olympic medal in the sport, and nor had its opponent in the final; Mol and Sørum lost a group match and then did not drop another set.

Which nation won its first-ever Olympic beach volleyball medal, a gold, at Paris 2024?

Sweden's David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig arrived ranked world number one, lost two of their three group matches, then beat in the semi-final the Qatari pair who had beaten them in the pool.

Beside which Paris landmark was Olympic beach volleyball played in 2024?

The Eiffel Tower rose over a temporary arena on the Champ de Mars; there Ana Patrícia and Duda won a three-set final to end Brazil's 28-year wait for a second women's gold.

What do beach volleyball players call it when two opponents press the ball against each other above the net?

A joust is perfectly legal: play simply goes on, and whichever side the ball drops on gets a fresh three touches to send it back.

How does a beach volleyball court compare in size with an indoor volleyball court?

Slightly smaller: 16 m by 8 m against 18 m by 9 m indoors, a cut made in the early 2000s, while the net was left at the full indoor height.

Why do beach volleyball pairs switch ends every seven points?

To even out sun and wind, so that neither pair is stuck on the worse side for long; they must cross at once with no break, and in a deciding set the swap comes every five points.

Which attacking shot, legal indoors, is banned in two-man beach volleyball?

An open-hand tip is whistled as a fault under beach rules, so attackers punch the ball over with their knuckles instead, a shot known as the pokey.

What do beach volleyball players tell a partner with the finger signals flashed behind the back?

How they plan to block: one finger usually means the line and two the angle, a signal for each opponent, held behind the back so the other pair cannot read it.

Under old 'side-out' scoring, when could a beach volleyball pair win a point?

When serving, and only then: win a rally on the other pair's serve and all you gained was the serve itself, so games ran long; rally scoring now pays a point every time and makes for a much faster match.

In beach volleyball, what is it called when a blocker abandons the net to play defence?

Peeling is the blocker's answer to a poor pass or set on the other side: with no hard spike coming, there is nothing to block, so both players drop back to cover the court.

Why is beach volleyball's 'sky ball' serve hardest to handle around midday?

The passer stares into the sun: the serve is hit underhand, as high as the server can send it, so whoever receives must look straight up and wait for the ball to drop.

Under which name did the NCAA first adopt women's beach volleyball?

Sand volleyball was the college label until 2015, when the NCAA gave way to the name used at every other level of the game, in time for its first national championship in 2016.

Which country hosted the 2007 Beach Volleyball World Championships at its mountain resort of Gstaad?

Switzerland drew tens of thousands to Gstaad, high in the Alps, and the sport's rulers called it proof that beach volleyball does not need the sea; the championships come round every two years.