Lausanne, Switzerland, September 10, 2014 — Midway through a month-long break between tournaments, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) pauses to look back on some of the significant stats from its 2014 US$10.2 million FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, Part 1.
Following this four-week hiatus, the FIVB returns to action on the sand in Brazil with the double-gender US$800,000 FIVB São Paulo Grand Slam to be held Sept. 23-28. While Brazil has hosted more FIVB events than any nation with 64 tournaments through 2013, São Paulo will host a men and women’s FIVB World Tour event for the second straight year with this year being the last of a FIVB-record 10 double-gender grand slams on the 2014 FIVB World Tour schedule.
With 12 men’s events and 13 women’s tournaments now completed, here are some spicy sauces from the 2014 FIVB World Tour that are Part 1 of the scrumptious succulent smorgasbord of treats on the FIVB Beach Volleyball menu:
Key points:
• Go Gold or Go Home –
• Just Win Baby –
• Canada Wins in Four of Five –
• Five Different Teams of 10 Players Win Medals –
• 14 New Men’s Medalists –
• Men’s Top Rookies –
• Men’s 2014 final four country leaders –
• Men’s Qualification Percentages - 00% (16 of 20) and Canada (NORCECA) 47.37% (9 of 19).
• Go Gold or Go Home – That must be the motto for the United States women this season on the FIVB World Tour. Thus far this season, the North American nation has four medals – all gold and all by one team, three-time defending Olympic Gold Medalist, Kerri Walsh Jennings and 2012 London Silver Medalist, April Ross. None of the other nine teams who have played this season have won medals either – three teams have finished as high as fifth-place (Lauren Fendrick/Brooke Sweat two times, Heather Hughes/Crystal Engle, and Emily Day/Summer Ross). Even Walsh Jennings/Ross, who are a perfect 27-0 in pool play, have also struggled when they don’t win, finishing in fifth-place two times (Shanghai and Berlin) and finishing in ninth-place three times (Gstaad, The Hague, and Klagenfurt).
• Just Win Baby – While the United States women have won only gold medals on the 2014 FIVB World Tour, the Brazilian and German women have split their 13 and 10 medals among all three colors. Brazil has matched the United States with four gold medals (Puerto Vallarta, The Hague, Klagenfurt, Stare Jablonki), but has also added six silver and three bronze medals for their total of 13. Included in their medal trio, Brazil swept all three podium spots at the FIVB Klagenfurt Grand Slam (Talita Antunes/Larissa Franca, gold, Maria Antonelli/Juliana Felisberta, silver, and Agatha Bednarczuk/Barbara Seixas, bronze). The only other women’s country to win all three medals this season is Germany, which has three gold medals (Shanghai, Anapa, and Gstaad) to go with four silver and three bronze medals.
• Canada Wins in Four of Five – Canada, which is not known for its beach volleyball prowess on the FIVB World Tour, has shown a lot of potential for the future as the only country to win four medals in the four Age Group World Championships plus the inaugural beach volleyball competition at the Youth Olympics. In June, Melissa Humana-Paredes/Taylor Pischke won the bronze at the U23 World Championships in Poland; Canada was shut out in the U17 World Championships in Acapulco, but then rebounded in Lanarka, Cyprus with Sophie Bukovec/Tiadora Miric taking the gold at the U21 World Championships. The McNamara twins, Megan and Nicole finished off Canada’s four medals with a bronze in the U19 World Championships in Porto, Portugal and a silver medal at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China. The United States matched Canada’s four medals, but won two in the U17 World Championships and no medals in the U19 World Championships or the Youth Olympic Games.
• Five Different Teams of 10 Players Win Medals – The United States men have had five different men’s teams to win a medal on the 2014 FIVB World Tour. The number of different teams is not a record, Brazil had 10 different men’s teams win a medal on the 2008 FIVB World Tour and the Brazilian women have also had five different women’s teams win this season too. However, it’s the first time that ten different players have made up the medal winning teams – Brazil had just 13 players make up their 10 teams in 2008, and just eight players have been a part of this year’s Brazilian’s women’s five medalists. The United States men started slowly with Olympians Phil Dalhausser/Sean Rosenthal winning the North American country’s first medal in the FIVB Moscow Grand Slam, the fifth event of the FIVB World Tour Season. The Americans picked up the pace, with Tri Bourne/John Hyden and Ryan Doherty/Nick Lucena winning the gold and silver medals, respectively, at the next event in Berlin. Theo Brunner/Todd Rogers won the bronze medal a month later at the ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball in Long Beach, USA and Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson became the fifth team, winning the bronze medal at the Stare Jablonki Grand Slam in August.
• 14 New Men’s Medalists – The 2014 FIVB World Tour might eventually be known as the season with the most new men’s medalists. So far this season, there have been 14 men who have won their first FIVB World Tour medal. The season record is 15 in 2008. The new medalists for 2014 are as follows:
• Gold: John Hyden (15 events, best previous finish 17th)/Tri Bourne (1, 5th), United States
• Silver: Matteo Ingrosso (44, 5th)/Paolo Ingrosso (42, 5th), Italy and Ryan Doherty (10, 5th), United States
• Bronze: Juan Virgen (46, 17th)/Lombardo Ontiveros (15, 13th), Mexico; Mirco Gerson (8, 17th)/Philip Gabathuler (78, 7th), Switzerland; Theo Brunner (2, 17th), United States; Christopher McHugh (55, 5th)/Isaac Kapa (53, 5th), Australia; and Christian Vaarenhorst (31, 4th)/Jon Stiekema (28, 4th), Netherlands.
• Men’s Top Rookies – The 2014 FIVB World Tour has seen some solid performances by ‘rookie’s on the circuit. Playing nearly or totally fulltime this year including three who have one a gold medal—USA’s Tri Bourne, Russia’s Viacheslav Karasilnikov and Latvia’s Aleksandrs Solovejs., Leading the ‘rookie’ tour points is USA’s Bourne with 1,980 points in 10 events, followed by Russia’s Krasilnikov with 1,455 in eight events and Latvia’s Solovejs with 950 in 10 events. Fourth in FIVB World Tour points with a season high placement of one fifth place in eight events is Netherlands’ Michiel van Dorsten with 750 points in eight events while Germany’s Lars Fluggen is fifth in 740 points in eight events with a top finish of one ninth place. Bourne is playing this season with veteran John Hyden and together they are currently sixth in the FIVB World Tour point standings and earnings’ list.
• Men’s 2014 final four country leaders – So far on the 2014 FIVB World Tour, the United States and Brazil are tied for the most men’s final four placements with 10 each. USA has 10 medals (four gold medals, two silver, two bronze) while Brazil has seven medals (two, three, two). Third with six final four placements and four medals in Latvia (two, two, zero) followed by Italy with five final fours and four medals (two, two, zero). Fifth in men’s final fours is Germany with one medal (bronze).
• Men’s Qualification Percentages - Of the 12 men’s events held so far on the 2014 FIVB World Tour, here are some numbers and percentages for FIVB Confederations and countries which have had teams compete in the qualification tournaments and had one or more of the eight teams who advanced to each main draw. Overall for the men, the AVC has had 28.13% (9 of 32) of its teams advance to the main draw, the CAVB 0% (0 of 6) the CEV has had 28.41% (50 of 176), the CSV has had 53.85% (14 of 26) and NORCECA has had 56.53% (26 of 46). Among individual countries by confederation, China (AVC) has qualified 40.00% (4 of 10), Italy (CEV) 55.56% (5 of 9), Czech Republic (CEV) 41.67% (5 of 12), the Netherlands (CEV) 44.44% (4 of 9), Germany (CEV), 41.67% (5 of 9), Brazil (CSV) 75.00% (9 of 12), the United States (NORCECA) 80.00% (16 of 20) and Canada (NORCECA) 47.37% (9 of 19).
• No Dominance in Men’s Age Group – While Canada’s women’s teams won medals in four different Age Group or Youth Olympic Games and the United States also won four medals, no men’s teams could win more than two medals. Ten different countries won the 15 available medals with five winning two: Poland captured two gold medals (U21 and U23), Russia won gold (Youth Olympics) and silver (U21), Brazil won gold (U19) and bronze (U23), Venezuela won silver (Youth Olympics) and bronze (U19), and France won two bronze (U17 and U21). Five countries split the remaining five medals with one each: Switzerland won gold (U17), Norway (U23) Spain (U17), and Ukraine (U19) won silver, and Argentina won bronze (Youth Olympics).
• FIVB Age Group Men’s Final Fours – With four different championships for the first time this year plus the Youth Olympic Games, Poland and Brazil are the all-time country leaders in the four FIVB Age Group World Championships and Youth Olympic Games in final four placements. For the men, Poland is on top with 20 final four placements, including 18 medals (nine gold, four silver, five bronze) while tied for second all-time are Brazil and Germany with 15 final fours each. Brazilian men have 14 medals (six gold, five silver and three bronze) while Germany has nine men’s medals (three, two, four). Fourth among the men is Russia with 12 final four placements (one, three, five) and fifth is Spain with seven (two, three, one).
• FIVB Age Group Women’s Final Fours - In women’s age group competition, Brazil leads with 20 final four placements (10 gold medals, four silver, three bronze). Second is Germany with 19 final fours (four, six, six), the Netherlands is third with 12 (three, four, three), fourth is Poland with 11 (four, two, one) and fifth is Russia with nine (one, four, four) in women’s age-group competition.