Lausanne, Switzerland, August 14, 2014 — Completing a two-week break between tournaments this week, 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.
Following this two-week hiatus, the FIVB returns to action on the sand in Poland with the always-exciting US$800,000 FIVB Stare Jablonki Grand Slam to be held Aug. 19-24 in the Mazury region of Poland.
With 11 men’s events and 12 women’s tournaments now completed, here are some juicy munchies from the 2014 FIVB World Tour that are some main dishes on the savory FIVB Beach Volleyball menu:
• FIVB Milestone Victories; Race for No. 1 – With Brazil’s Larissa Franca back on the FIVB World Tour, the top three women’s leaders in career victories are all active once again. Kerri Walsh Jennings from the United States tops the list with 50 career FIVB World Tour victories after standing atop the podium four times this season (Fuzhou, Moscow, Stavanger, and Long Beach). She and her new partner, April Ross, have had a “feast or famine” season with two fifth-place finishes and three ninth-place finishes in their other five events. Number two on the all-time list, Larissa Franca has only been back on the tour for three events in 2014, but she and her new partner, Talita Antunes, also struck gold in the last FIVB World Tour event in Klagenfurt, Austria. Larissa’s win in Austria was her 47th career FIVB victory, securing her hold on second place over her long-time partner, Juliana Felisberta who has 45 FIVB World Tour gold medals in her career. Juliana and her new partner, Maria Antonelli, have made six final fours and played in four gold-medal matches on the 2014 FIVB World Tour, including Klagenfurt, but have no victories this season. Here is the list of the top seven active women’s career FIVB World Tour victory leaders:
• 1. Kerri Walsh Jennings, United States, 50
• 2. Larissa Franca, Brazil, 47
• 3. Juliana Felisberta, Brazil, 45
• 4. Talita Antunes, Brazil, 19
• 5. Chen Xue, China, 17
• 6. April Ross, United States, 16
• 7. Maria Antonelli, Brazil, 9
Key Points:
• FIVB Beach Volleyball Milestone Women’s Winnings as Brazil’s Talita Joins Million Elites Dollar Club
• Brazil Finally Breaks FIVB World Tour Men’s Winless Streak in Klagenfurt, Austria
• Resurgence of United States Men on FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour
• FIVB Beach Volleyball Age Group World Championships Recap
• FIVB Beach Volleyball Age Group World Championships All-Time Final Fours
• 2014 Men’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Qualification Percentages
• 2014 Women’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Qualification Percentages
• 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Match wins by Confederation/Country
• 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Total Entries
• FIVB Milestone Women’s Winnings – With her victory in the FIVB Klagenfurt Grand Slam, Brazil’s Talita Antunes became the seventh woman to top the US$1Million mark in career FIVB World Tour earnings. Talita ranks fourth among active players, with the three career victory leaders above her. Here is the list of the top seven active women’s career FIVB World Tour earnings leaders:
• 1. Juliana Felisberta, Brazil, US$1,446,412
• 2. Larissa Franca, Brazil, US$1,389,735
• 3. Kerri Walsh Jennings, United States, US$1,237,170
• 4. Talita Antunes, Brazil, US$1,006,175
• 5. Chen Xue, China, US$803,388
• 6. April Ross, United States, US$788,175
• 7. Maria Antonelli, Brazil, US$705,213
• Brazil Finally Breaks FIVB Winless Streak – FIVB World Tour powerhouse Brazil hadn’t won a men’s gold medal in the last eleven FIVB World Tour events, since the FIVB Xiamen Grand Slam in late October of last season. All that changed when Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt defeated Italy’s Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai in the finals of the FIVB Klagenfurt Grand Slam, 21-14 and 21-17 in 33 minutes to claim the gold. Alison/Bruno had other opportunities to break the winless streak this season, including a gold-medal match loss to the same Italian team in the season-opening FIVB Fuzhou Open and also a finals loss to American’s Phil Dalhausser/Sean Rosenthal at the FIVB Gstaad Grand Slam last month. The last Brazilian men’s team to strike gold was Alison and Vitor Felipe, who also had an opportunity to break the streak with his new partner, Ricardo Santos before losing also to Dalhausser/Rosenthal in the finals of the FIVB Stavanger Grand Slam, also last month.
• Resurgence of United States Men – With their bronze medal at the FIVB ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball in Long Beach, Calif., USA, Todd Rogers/Theo Brunner of the United States became the fourth team from the United States to win a medal on the 2014 FIVB World Tour. Phil Dalhausser/Sean Rosenthal also won a medal in Long Beach (gold), their fifth medal of 2014 (three gold, one silver, one bronze), Ryan Doherty/Nick Lucena won a silver in the FIVB Berlin Grand Slam and a bronze in the FIVB Gstaad Grand Slam, and Tri Bourne/John Hyden struck gold at the FIVB Berlin Grand Slam. With the exception of Dalhausser/Rosenthal, all four medals by the other three American teams were won as a team advancing from the qualifier into the main draw. Rogers/Brunner became the seventh men’s team to win a medal as a qualifier this season, breaking the record already set earlier this season. While neither four different teams nor eight different players medaling in one season for a nation are records, the Americans have now matched the German women, who also have four different teams and eight different players with a medal on the 2014 FIVB World Tour.
• FIVB Age Group World Championships – With the inaugural U17 World Championships in Acapulco, Mexico, for the first time ever, four different FIVB Age Group World Championships were part of the FIVB World Tour calendar in 2014. Brazil swept both men’s and women’s FIVB U19 World Championships in Porto, Portugal, to tie Poland for the most age group titles in 2014. Both countries lead the all-time medal count with 30 for Brazil and 25 for Poland. Here are the winners for 2014:
• FIVB U23 World Championships, Myslowice, Poland, June 10-15
o Men: Maciej Kosiak/Maciej Rudol, Poland
o Women: Mariafe Artacho/Nicole Laird, Australia
• FIVB U17 World Championships, Acapulco, Mexico, July 16-20
o Boys: Florian Breer/Yves Haussener, Switzerland
o Girls: Morgan Martin/Kathryn Plummer, United States
• FIVB U21 World Championships, Lanarka, Cyprus, July 23-27
o Men: Michal Bryl/Kacper Kujawiak, Poland
o Women: Sophie Bukovec/Tiadora Miric, Canada
• FIVB U19 World Championships, Porto, Portugal, July 29-August 3
o Men: Arthur Mariano/George Wanderley, Brazil
o Women: Andressa Cavalcanti/Eduarda Lisboa, Brazil
• FIVB Age Group Men’s Final Fours – With four different championships for the first time this year, Poland and Brazil are the all-time country leaders in the four FIVB Age Group World Championships 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 11 final four placements (zero, 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 19 final four placements (nine gold medals, four silver, three bronze). Second is Germany with 18 final fours (four, six, five), 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.
• Men’s Qualification Percentages - Of the 11 men’s events held so far on the 2014 FIVB World Tour, here are some numbers and percentages for FIVB Confederations and countries who 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 26.67% (8 of 20) of its teams advance to the main draw, the CAVB 0% (0 of 6) the CEV has had 27.78% (45 of 162), the CSV has had 52.00% (13 of 25) and NORCECA has had 58.14% (25 of 43). Among individual countries by confederation, China (AVC) has qualified 40.00% (4 of 10), Austria (CEV) 80.00% (4 of 5), Italy (CEV) 62.50% (5 of 8), Czech Republic (CEV) 50.00% (5 of 10), the Netherlands (CEV) 44.44% (4 of 9), Brazil (CSV) 72.73% (8 of 11), the United States (NORCECA) 78.95% (15 of 19) and Canada (NORCECA) 52.94% (9 of 17).
• Women’s Qualification Percentages - Of the 12 women’s events played on the 2014 FIVB World Tour. Overall for the women, the AVC had 20.49% (10 of 49 teams qualify), CEV had 35.48% (55 of 155), CSV had 86.67% (13 of 15) and NORCECA had 60.00% (18 of 30). Among individual countries by confederation, Kazakhstan (AVC) has qualified 57.14% (4 of 7), Germany (CEV) 76.92% (10 of 13), Italy (CEV) 40.00% (4 of 10), Poland (CEV) 70.00% (7 of 10), Russia (CEV) 47.37% (9 of 19), Switzerland (CEV), 50.00% (5 of 10), Brazil (CSV) 88.89% (8 of 9), Argentina (CSV) 100% (4 of 4), Mexico (NORCECA) 71.43% (5 of 7) and the United States (NORCECA) 53.85% (7 of 13).
• Match wins by Confederation/Country - Overall in men’s competition after 11 events, the CSV has won 58.8%(150-105) of its matches with NORCECA second at 57.5% (206-152), CEV third at 48.0% (550-597) and the AVC fourth with 36.8% (64-110) counting Top 24 elimination, pool play and qualifying matches. Individually for men, the United States (NORCECA) has had the best percentage at 65.1% (49-80), followed by Brazil (CSV) at 63.2% (120-70) and Chile (CSV) third at 60.0% (18-12), Qatar fourth at 59.1% (13-9) and Latvia fifth at 58.3% (63-45. After 12 events in women’s action, the CSV leads with at 67.7% (205-98) followed by the CEV at 48.1% (522-563), NORCECA at 47.3% (155-173), and AVC fourth at 42.5% (135-183). Individually, Brazil has topped all women’s play at 71.8% (178-70) with Argentina second at 66.7% (20-10), with Spain second at 64.8% (35-19), Germany third at 59.1% (139-96), the United States fourth at 56.2% (104-81) and fifth is Czech Republic at 54.7% (58-48)..
• Main draw wins by seeds - For the men after 11 events in 2014, seed No.1 leads at 84.8% (56-10 each) with seed 2 second at 73.7% (42-15), seed No. 7 third at 72.4% (42-16), seed No. 4 fourth at 70.7% (41-17) and No. 3 fifth at 67.7% (42-20). For the women after 12 events in 2014, seed No. 1 has topped the winning percentage at 79.7% (55-14) with seed No. 2 in second at 76.1% (51-16) and seeds 4 and 3 tied for third at 72.7% (48-18) with seed No. 7 in fifth at 70.0% (42-18).
• Match wins by events played together - Men after 11 events – 51 to 100 events 60.2% (97-64), 16 to 25 57.8% (230-168) and 26 to 50 49.5% (152-155). Also for men, events played total 101 to 200 events, 59.1% (408-282), over 200, 54.1% (72-61). Women after 12 events – as a team 51-100, 65.8% (96-50), 10 to 15 56.2% (250-195), 16-25, 54.9% (264-217) andover 100, 52.9% (36-32); events played total: over 200 events played total 68.0 % (104-49), 101 to 200 56.3% (389-302) and 51 to 100, 50.2% (344-341).
• Match Wins by Combined Age – For men after 11 events, combined age of 60-69, 56.5% winning percentage (268-206), 50 to 59, 49.7% (497-502) and 70 and over 48.4% (31-33). For women after 12 events, combined age winning percentage, 60 to 69, 64.4% (206-114), 50 to 59, 49.3% (562-578) and 40 to 49, 45.2% (239-290).
• Total Entries –Through 11 men’s events and 12 women’s tournaments so far on the FIVB World Tour, there have been a total of 1,064 different teams entered in the various events, 527 men and 537 women. By Confederations, the CEV has had the most teams compete with 623 total (324 men, 299 women), followed way back by NORCECA with 167 (84, 83) the AVC with 155 (56, 99), CSV with 113 (57, 56) and the CAVB with 6 (6 men’s teams). By individual countries, Germany (CEV) has had the most with 92 (39 men, 24 women), followed by the United States (NORCECA) with 89 (45, 44), Brazil (CSV) with 80 (37, 43), Austria (CEV) with 63 (39, 24), the Netherlands with 61 (28, 33), Switzerland (CEV) with 58 (32, 26), Canada (NORCECA) with 56 (27, 29) and tied with 55 entries each are China (AVC) (19, 36) and Russia (22, 33).
NET GAIN
Based in Lausnne, Switzerland as the international governing body for the Olympic sports of Beach Volleyball and Volleyball, the 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour calendar features a record purse of US$10.2 million with a season that extends from late April to mid-December competing at 21 venues in 18 countries. This year’s FIVB World Tour includes a record 10 FIVB Grand Slam events, the inaugural Grand Slam Finale and 10 FIVB Open Tournaments throughout the world, helping expand the door for development of the sport even further. The FIVB Grand Slam competitions, all double-gender, have eight with $800,000 in total purses while both The Hague, Netherlands and the Long Beach, Calif., USA event had $1 million each in prize money, the most in FIVB Grand Slam history.
The 10 FIVB Open tournaments in 2014, seven double-gender, two men’s only events and one women only event, will have $150,000 total purses for the double gender events and $75,000 for the single-gender competitions.
NEXT GEN
As part of the initiatives of FIVB President Dr Ary S. Graça F° and his leadership team, the 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball international calendar also included a record four age-group FIVB World Championships and the 2014 Nanjing (China) Youth Olympic Games Aug. 17-27).
Poland’s Maciej Kosiak/Maciej Rudol won the men’s gold medal for the home country and Australia’s Mariafe Artacho/Nicole Laird capturing the women’s gold medal for the second annual U23 in Myslowice, Poland. Capturing the gold medals in the inaugural U17 World Championships in Acapulco, Mexico were Switzerland’s Florian Breer/Yves Haussener and USA’s Morgan Martin/Kathryn Plummer. Winning the 14th U21 championships in Larnaka, Cyprus were Poland’s Michal Bryl/Kacper Kujawiak and Canada’s Sophie Bukovec/Tiadora Miric. The 13th U19 World Championships in Porto Portugal were won by Brazil’s Arthur Mariano/George Wanderley for the men and in the women’s competition the winners were Brazil’s Andressa Cavalanti/Eduarda Lisboa.