FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championship

FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championship
Current season, competition or edition:; 2014 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship
Sport	Volleyball
Founded	1952
First season	1952
CEO	Ary Graça
No. of teams	24 (Finals)
Continent	International (FIVB)
Most recent; champion(s)	United States (1st title)
Most titles	Russia (7 titles)
Official website	FIVB Volleyball World Championships

The FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship is an international volleyball competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. The initial gap between championships was variable, but since 1970 they have been awarded every four years. The current champions are the United States, which won their first title at the 2014 tournament in Italy.

The current format of the competition involves a qualification phase, which currently takes place over the preceding three years, to determine which teams qualify for the tournament phase, which is often called the World Championship Finals. 24 teams, including the automatically qualifying host nation(s), compete in the tournament phase for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over a period of about a month.

The 17 World Championship tournaments have been won by six different national teams. Russia have won seven times (five as Soviet Union). The other World Championship winners are Japan and Cuba, with three titles each; China, with two titles; and Italy, and United States, with one title each.

The 2014 World Championship took place in Italy. The next World Championship will be hosted again by Japan in 2018.

History

Origins

The history of the World Championship goes back to the beginnings of volleyball as a professional, high level sport. One of the first concrete measures taken by the FIVB after its foundation in 1947 was the establishment of an international competition involving teams from more than one continent. In 1949, the first edition of the Men's World Championship was played in Prague, Czechoslovakia. At that point, the tournament was still restricted to Europe.

Three years later, a women's version was introduced; the events were synchronized and expanded to include nations from Asia, and began to be held in 4-year cycles. By the following edition, there were also teams from South, Central and North America.

Since volleyball was to be added to the Olympic Program in 1964, the 4-cycles were advanced in 2 years after the fourth edition (1960), so that the World Championship may alternate with the Summer Olympics. As of 1970, teams from Africa also took part in the competition, and the original goal of having members from all five continental confederations in the games was achieved.

The number of teams involved in the games has changed significantly over the years. Following volleyball's increase in popularity, they raised steadily to over 20 in the 1970s and part of the 1980s, were then cut short to 16 in the 1990s, and finally set up in 24 after 2002. Today, the World Championship is the most comprehensive of all events organized by the FIVB, and arguably the second most important, surpassed in prestige only by the Olympic Games.

Until 1974, the host nation of the tournament organized both the men's and the women's events, with the single exception of the 1966/1967 games, which took place in different years. Since 1978, this practice has been only occasionally observed, for instance, in 1998 and in the 2006 edition, which was held, as the former was, in Japan.

Winners

If the titles of the Women's World Championship are evenly distributed between Europe and Asia, the situation is quite different when nations are taken into account. Except for Italy's single—and for many, unexpected—victory in 2002 and United States victory in 2014, the only winners so far have been the Russia (5 times as Soviet Union), Japan, China and Cuba.

The Soviets made a most impressive start by winning the first three editions of the tournament: 1952, 1956, 1960. They were halfway to making it four, since the following edition was to be played in Moscow. Former runners-up Japan, nevertheless, was the champions in 1962 and interrupted the winning streak, repeating the performance in 1967, when the Soviet Union national team did not participate.

The teams faced each other again in 1970, and this time the Soviet Union beat their opponents to collect the gold. In the following edition, Japan took revenge and defeated the Soviet Union in straight sets. Then something extraordinary happened: the world watched astonished as a young Cuban squad left behind the two longtime rivals and secured the first important volleyball title for a continent other than Europe or Asia.

The early 1980s saw the rise of a new Asian force: led by superstar Lang Ping, China stamped their mark on the World Championship's history by winning two editions in a row (1982 and 1986). They also made it to the finals in 1990, but were overpowered by the Soviet Union in their last participation at the competition.

Cuba's 1978 title finally fructified in an aggressive style of play that virtually dominated the 1990s. Led by powerplayers Regla Torres, Mireya Luis and Regla Bell, the Caribbeans won the 1994 and 1998 editions of the World Championship, beating newbies as well as tradition rivals such as Russia and China.

In spite of being appointed as favourites in 2002, China lost at the semifinals to a rising Italy, which would eventually win the final against United States

In 2006, favourites Brazil couldn't stop Russia and lost the gold medal match in a shocking final tie-breaker.

In 2010, Russia once again defeated Brazil in a 5th-set tie-breaker.

In 2014, the United States made it to the finals after an astonishing straight-set win against the 2012 Olympic champion and 2006 and 2010 runner-up Brazil. China, on the other hand, reached the championship after winning over hosts Italy in a four-set fashion. The finals saw two former World champions - Lang Ping and Karch Kiraly - at the helm of the champion squads. United States' momentum carried them to a 3-1 victory over the young Chinese squad, earning the first ever World title for the USA women's team after finishing as bridesmaids in several editions of the World Championship, World Cup and the Olympic Games.

Competition formula

The competition formula of the FIVB World Championship has been constantly changed to fit the different number of teams that participate in each edition. The following rules usually apply:

Twenty-four teams participate in each event.
Qualification procedures for the World Championship are long and strenuous, lasting over two years.
Host nations are always pre-qualified.
The number of spots available per confederation is determined by the FIVB: Europe has usually the highest, and Africa or South America the lowest.
To participate in the event, a team must survive a number of qualification tournaments depending on its position in the FIVB World Rankings. Low-ranked teams may have to engage in up to three tournaments to be granted a berth; high-ranked teams typically play only one.
The competition is divided in at least two phases: a preliminary round and a final round. Depending on the number of participating teams, one or more intermediary rounds may also be required.
In the preliminary round, teams are organized in pools. Each team plays one match against all other teams in its pool.
When all the matches of the preliminary round have been played, the top n teams in each pool qualify for the following round(s), and the remaining ones leave the competition. The value of n depends on the number of participating teams and the format that will be employed in the finals.
The FIVB has tried various different formats for the final round(s). For some years now (2004), there seems to be a consensus that at least semifinals and finals must be played according to the Olympic format.
Quarterfinals may consist of groups of teams playing against each other, or of direct confrontation; in the latter case additional intermediary rounds might be required to reduce the number of surviving teams to eight.
The tournament implements very tight line-up restrictions: only twelve players are allowed, and no replacement is permitted, even in case of injuries.

Results Summary

Year	Host	Final			3rd place match			Teams
Year	Host	Champions	Score	Runners-up	3rd place	Score	4th place	Teams
1952 Details	Soviet Union	Soviet Union	Round-robin	Poland	Czechoslovakia	Round-robin	Bulgaria	8
1956 Details	France	Soviet Union	Round-robin	Romania	Poland	Round-robin	Czechoslovakia	17
1960 Details	Brazil	Soviet Union	Round-robin	Japan	Czechoslovakia	Round-robin	Poland	10
1962 Details	Soviet Union	Japan	Round-robin	Soviet Union	Poland	Round-robin	Bulgaria	14
1967 Details	Japan	Japan	Round-robin	United States	South Korea	Round-robin	Peru	4
1970 Details	Bulgaria	Soviet Union	Round-robin	Japan	North Korea	Round-robin	Hungary	16
1974 Details	Mexico	Japan	Round-robin	Soviet Union	South Korea	Round-robin	East Germany	23
1978 Details	Soviet Union	Cuba	3–0	Japan	Soviet Union	3–1	South Korea	23
1982 Details	Peru	China	3–0	Peru	United States	3–1	Japan	23
1986 Details	Czechoslovakia	China	3–1	Cuba	Peru	3–1	East Germany	16
1990 Details	China	Soviet Union	3–1	China	United States	3–1	Cuba	16
1994 Details	Brazil	Cuba	3–0	Brazil	Russia	3–1	South Korea	16
1998 Details	Japan	Cuba	3–0	China	Russia	3–1	Brazil	16
2002 Details	Germany	Italy	3–2	United States	Russia	3–1	China	24
2006 Details	Japan	Russia	3–2	Brazil	Serbia and Montenegro	3–0	Italy	24
2010 Details	Japan	Russia	3–2	Brazil	Japan	3–2	United States	24
2014 Details	Italy	United States	3–1	China	Brazil	3–2	Italy	24
2018 Details	Japan							24

Hosts

Hosts	Nations (Year(s))
5	Japan (1967, 1998, 2006, 2010, 2018)
3	Soviet Union (1952, 1962, 1978)
2	Brazil (1960, 1994)
1	Bulgaria (1970) China (1990) Czechoslovakia (1986) France (1956) Germany (2002) Italy (2014) Mexico (1974) Peru (1982)

Medals Summary

Total		17	17	17	51
1	Russia^[A]	7	2	4	13
2	Japan	3	3	1	7
3	Cuba	3	1	0	4
4	China	2	3	0	5
5	United States	1	2	2	5
6	Italy	1	0	0	1
7	Brazil	0	3	1	4
8	Poland	0	1	2	3
9	Peru	0	1	1	2
10	Romania	0	1	0	1
11	Czech Republic^[B]	0	0	2	2
11	South Korea	0	0	2	2
13	North Korea	0	0	1	1
13	Serbia^[C]	0	0	1	1

MVP By Edition

1952–78 – Not awarded ^[1]
1982 – Lang Ping (CHN)
1986 – Yang Xilan (CHN)
1990 – Irina Parkhomchuk (URS)
1994 – Regla Torres (CUB)
1998 – Regla Torres (CUB)
2002 – Elisa Togut (ITA)
2006 – Yoshie Takeshita (JPN)
2010 – Ekaterina Gamova (RUS)
2014 – Kimberly Hill (USA)
2018

Notes

^ FIVB considers Russia (since 1993) as the inheritor of the records of Soviet Union (1948–1991) and CIS (1992).
^ FIVB considers Czech Republic (since 1994) as the inheritor of the records of Czechoslovakia (1948–1993).
^ FIVB considers Serbia (since 2007) as the inheritor of the records of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1948–1991), Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1992–2002) and Serbia and Montenegro (2003–2006).

References

^ Volleywood. "List of MVP by edition - Women's World Championship". Volleywood.net.

External links

[Russia-1] FIVB considers Russia (since 1993) as the inheritor of the records of Soviet Union (1948–1991) and CIS (1992).

[Czech_Republic-2] FIVB considers Czech Republic (since 1994) as the inheritor of the records of Czechoslovakia (1948–1993).

[Serbia-3] FIVB considers Serbia (since 2007) as the inheritor of the records of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1948–1991), Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1992–2002) and Serbia and Montenegro (2003–2006).

[mvp-4] Volleywood. "List of MVP by edition - Women's World Championship". Volleywood.net.

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v t e FIVB Men's Volleyball World Championship
Tournaments	Czechoslovakia 1949 Soviet Union 1952 France 1956 Brazil 1960 Soviet Union 1962 Czechoslovakia 1966 Bulgaria 1970 Mexico 1974 Italy 1978 Argentina 1982 France 1986 Brazil 1990 Greece 1994 Japan 1998 Argentina 2002 Japan 2006 Italy 2010 Poland 2014 Italy / Bulgaria 2018 Poland / Slovenia 2022 Philippines 2025
Qualifications	1949 1952 1956 1960 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 2025
Statistics	2018 2022
Squads	1949 1952 1956 1960 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022
National team appearances

v t e Medal tables of Olympics, Paralympics and World Championships by sport
Olympic Games (Hosts Medals)	Alpine skiing Archery Athletics Badminton Bandy Basketball men women Biathlon Bobsleigh Boxing Canoeing & kayaking Cross-country skiing Curling Cycling Diving Equestrian Field hockey Fencing Figure skating Football men women Freestyle skiing Gymnastics Handball Ice hockey Judo Luge Modern pentathlon Nordic combined Rowing Sailing Shooting Skeleton Ski jumping Snowboarding Speed skating Short track Swimming Synchronized swimming Table tennis Taekwondo Tennis Triathlon Volleyball Water polo Weightlifting Wrestling Greco-Roman Freestyle
Paralympic Games (Hosts Medals)	Alpine skiing Archery Athletics Biathlon Boccia Cross‑country skiing Cycling Equestrian Football 5-a-side Football 7-a-side Goalball Ice sledge hockey Judo Powerlifting Rowing Sailing Shooting Swimming Table tennis Volleyball Wheelchair basketball Wheelchair curling Wheelchair fencing Wheelchair rugby Wheelchair tennis
World Championships or World Cups	Alpine skiing American football Aquatics Archery Athletics Badminton men women BWF Bandy men women Baseball Basketball men women Basque Pelota Beach soccer Biathlon Bobsleigh & skeleton Bowling Canoe Slalom Sprint Cricket men women Test ODI Curling men women mixed doubles Cycling BMX Cyclo-cross men women Mountain Bike Marathon Track Equestrian Equestrian games Show jumping Eventing Fencing F1 drivers constructors Field hockey men women Football clubs men women Figure skating Futsal Gymnastics artistic rhythmic trampoline Handball men women Ice hockey men women Inline hockey FIRS IIHF Judo Karate Luge natural Modern pentathlon Motorcycle racing drivers constructors Nordic skiing Padel tennis Polo Rallying drivers co-drivers manufacturers Roller hockey men women Rowing Rugby league men women Rugby union men women Shooting Softball Speed skating men men's sprint women women's sprint Taekwondo Squash individual team Tennis men women Volleyball men women Water polo Weightlifting Wrestling Wushu
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