Volleyball 2024 Olympics: Winners and Medal Ranking

Last Sunday, 11 August, saw the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games coming to its conclusion. For over two weeks, from 26 July to 11 August, this colourful event brought together athletes from all over the world to compete for one of the highest honours in sports – being called an Olympic champion. 

Meanwhile, sport fans cheered at the venues in Paris or gathered around their TV screens worldwide. The 2024 Olympic Games united 10,714 athletes from 206 nations and included 32 sports with a total of 48 disciplines, so everyone found something to their liking. Compared to the six sports ancient Greeks competed in and even the nine sports that kickstarted the Olympics of modernity, it is impressive to see how the Games continue to evolve with time.

But as anything else under the sun, the Olympic Games of this year have also come to an end. As the teams rejoice their victories, analyze performances, and get ready for the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, let’s take a look at some of the most interesting winners in the 2024 Paris Olympics. 

Volleyball: From Physical Education to the Olympic Games

If you have ever enjoyed a game of volleyball in the gym or on the beach with a bunch of friends, you have to thank William G. Morgan. A physical educator by profession, he invented volleyball as a game that would be less intense than basketball but still provide a good physical exercise. It might come as a surprise but his initial inspiration came from badminton.

Today volleyball is played in two teams of six people each positioned on either side of the net. The main goal of the game is to score points against your opponents by driving the ball into the ground on their side of the court. Both men and women play the game at the professional level.

Indoor Volleyball vs Beach Volleyball

It is widely believed that the first game of beach volleyball was played in Waikiki, Hawaii in 1915. While the main goal of the game remains the same, on the professional level each team consists of only two people. 

Throughout its history of existence volleyball has produced many variations and related games, but beach volleyball remains the closest to the original. It is also the most popular one, closely rivalling even the original game in terms of popularity. 

On the international level, the main governing body for both games is the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) that was established in France on 20 April, 1947.

First Appearance at the Olympics

Despite its popularity and demonstration games during several editions of the Olympic Games, indoor volleyball made its Olympic debut only in 1964 during the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games. Ten men’s teams and six women’s teams competed for the gold, silver, and bronze medals. Since then, however, volleyball became a core Olympic event and never failed to make an appearance.

It took beach volleyball even longer to be included in the official programme. Played as a demonstration sport at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics, it held its first medal events at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games in the United States. Men were represented with 24 teams, while women’s competition included 18 teams.

Volleyball Olympics 2024: How It Happened

In its 16th edition, volleyball Olympic events were scheduled between 27 July and 11 August. The quota allocated by the International Olympic Committee was 12 teams per gender in indoor volleyball (a total of 24 teams) and 24 teams per gender in beach volleyball (a total of 48 teams). The indoor volleyball events took place at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, while the beach volleyball events were conducted at the Eiffel Tower Stadium in Champ de Mars.

Volleyball Olympics 2024: Qualification Process

The qualification process underwent some changes for indoor volleyball. As the host nation, France, who also happens to be the current champion in men’s category, received a guaranteed one spot on both men’s and women’s list. The remaining teams were to be determined through three qualification tournaments, with the winner and runner-up for each tournament qualifying for a berth, while five more teams would be defined through world ranking. 

As a result, the following twelve men’s teams were selected for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics:

With the same qualification system applied to the women’s teams, the results were as follows:

The qualification mechanism for beach volleyball was somewhat different. Here as well, France received one spot per gender as the host. The winners of the 2023 Beach Volleyball Championships would also get one berth per gender. 17 highest ranking teams as determined by the Olympic ranking would be the next on the list, with the closing five spots filled by the winners of the continental qualification tournaments. 

Here is how this mechanism worked for men’s teams:

The results among the women’s beach volleyball teams looked like this:

Volleyball 2024 Olympics Winners

The finals in all volleyball events were conducted between 9 and 11 August, with the earliest game being women’s beach volleyball. Both the bronze medal match and the final were played on 9 August. It was also on the 9 August that men’s indoor volleyball teams played for bronze. 10 August was the busiest day on the medal round schedule, with the men’s indoor final, men’s beach volleyball bronze medal match and final, as well as women’s indoor bronze. On the last day of the schedule, 11 August, women’s silver and gold medalists in indoor volleyball were determined.

The names of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games champions, runners-up, and third place winners in beach volleyball are below:

The teams winning the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games gold, silver, and bronze in indoor volleyball are as follows:

Now that the winners are named and the overall number of medals per National Olympic Committee (NOC) participating in volleyball counted, here is the volleyball medal ranking for 2024 Summer Olympics:

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