Unless you are below seven, you should know what volleyball is all about. It is a popular sport with over more than 900m fans across the world.
It’s okay if you don’t know much about volleyball, we have more than enough information to share with you regarding the well-known sport. Let’s begin with the meaning and how it becomes one of the best sports in the world.
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What Is Volleyball
Volleyball is a game played between two teams having six players each. It is played in a relatively large court divided into two equal parts by a high net.
Volleyball is played by hands as players bat the ball around their court without touching the ground before aiming at the opponent’s court.
Once a team is with the ball, the aim is to hit it on the opponent’s court to win more points, which the opposing team would do everything to prevent.
Apart from hitting the ball on the opponent’s ground, a team can win points if the opponent smashes the net, and if their shot was completely out of the marked court.
The first team to amass 25 points becomes the winner. It takes close to 3 or 5 sets to reach the 25 marks. Hence, volleyball’s final score is often written as 3-2 which means the winner has three sets and the losing team has just two sets.
It can equally be 3-0 meaning the winning team defeated their opponents in three straight sets.
There are different types of volleyball; they include beach volleyball, indoor volleyball, and snow volleyball. We will discuss each type as we proceed.
Is Volleyball An Olympic Sport?
Yes! Volleyball is an Olympic sport and it is played in other major tournaments including World Championships, volleyball World Cup.
Like football and every other Olympic sport, there are preliminary or qualifying hurdles your team must cross to participate in the Olympics.
These qualifier matches are or organized within regions including Africa, Asian Europe, and other continents.
Using Africa as a case study, a bi-annual Volleyball tournament is arranged among qualified African teams.
They would be shared into three groups of five countries each. Having navigated their ways to the final, the tournament’s winner would be Africa’s sole representative at the Olympic games.
Is Indoor Volleyball an Olympic Sport?
Volleyball can be an indoor game and an outdoor game, depending on the type, settings, and competitive nature.
For instance, it is an indoor game when it’s being played in any organized competition or tournament such as the African volleyball championship, and Olympics games in a closed-door setting.
Fans and spectators sit in a sports complex to watch as the players aim for the medal. However, it can be referred to as an outdoor game if it’s deployed as a recreational game.
In this case, players are only involved just to catch fun and derive pleasure from it as there is nothing at stake.
This part of volleyball is known as beach volleyball and it’s mostly done on beaches as part of recreational activities.
Is Beach Volleyball an Olympic Sport?
Apart from serving as a recreational type of game, Beach Volleyball is also an Olympic sport. Participating countries are expected to fight for the medal in an open setting.
In this situation, the game is referred to as outdoor sports as it doesn’t take place under any roofing or complex.
Historically, beach volleyball emerged as an Olympic sport in 1992 in Barcelona Spain, albeit it was only a demonstration sport.
Four years later— 1996 precisely, it officially became an Olympic sport and has since been one of the most followed sports in the perennial tournament. You might be interested in snow volleyball.
Is Snow Volleyball An Olympic sport?
Here is another type of volleyball game that has been existing for decades. It is a bit different from the two other types mentioned earlier.
Unlike beach and indoor volleyball, snow volleyball is played between two teams with three players in each team.
It is played on a snowy court divided by a net. Its origin could be traced down to Austria and Switzerland when it was played without rule in the late 90s.
Snow volleyball started its rise to fame in 2008 when it was eventually introduced as a competition in Wagrain, Austria. It became an official sport in Austria three years later and many people were involved in it.
Having seen its pacy development, European Volleyball governing body, CEV, endorsed the game as a healthy sport that should be included in upcoming tournaments.
Meanwhile, the first European Snow Volleyball Championships took center stage in March 2018 in Austria.
Though it’s still not as popular as indoor or beach volleyball, it remains one of the most interesting games in the world.
Has it featured in the Olympics competition? No, but that’s would change soon. It is believed that the world’s volleyball governing body FIVB is set to include the game in the next winter Olympic Games.
According to a report, former volleyball players participated in a small-sized snow volleyball tourney during the 2018 winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea to see if it making it an official Olympic sport would be a good move.
With the successful outcome, it is safe to say that snow volleyball would gain a new status as Olympics sports in the nearest future.
Is Volleyball a Summer or Winter Olympic Sport?
As at this time, Volleyball is officially a summer Olympic sport alone. It first featured in the Summer Olympics in 1964 and has since maintained its spot in the well-celebrated sports fiesta.
However, the introduction of snow volleyball in the 2018 winter Olympics game (tested version) means the sport would soon become both winter and summer Olympic sport.
Indoor or beach volleyball would take place in the winter Olympics, while Snow volleyball would be officially included in the winter version of the world’s athletics tournament.
How and When Did Volleyball Become an Olympic Sport?
The history of the game can be traced back to a time when a group of players from the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) came up with the idea of volley in a ball over a net.
A few years later— precisely 1895, a young man, William Morgan, from Holyoke, Massachusetts, created a court for the newly invented game to make it look a bit presentable and classy.
He went on to name the new sport mintonette. Although, the name didn’t last long as it was changed by a player who thought it would be nice to provide the sport a very simple and relatable name.
According to him, since the sport is all about playing a ball over a net without hitting the ground, it would be okay to call it volleyball. The name was generally accepted by few people involved in the infamous sport back then.
Volleyball continued to develop from one country to another until it attains its present status as one of the most popular sports in the universe.
Following its impressive rise to fame, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) considered including it as part of the available sports.
It was partially included during the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, albeit as a demonstration game.
This was more or less like a trial to see if the competition version of the sport will have any negative effects on players.
After all testing and trials, volleyball made its Olympic Games debut in 1964 hosted in Tokyo, Japan.
That’s all we have for you concerning the sport’s history. Nonetheless, you can read the full parts of the history here.