The best volleyball players from around the world have converged on Paris for the 2024 Olympics’ beach and indoor competitions.
The indoor tournament will take place at the South Paris Arena 1, while the beach tournament is set up in the shadow of the iconic Eiffel Tower. For the United States, the indoor women’s team will seek to defend its first gold medal from the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and the women’s beach duos are heavily favored to podium.
On the men’s side, teams from Sweden and Norway lead the way in the beach competition predictions, and top-ranked Poland looks to come away with the indoor gold.
Here’s everything you need to know about both competitions, including their tournament formats and team pools, ahead of the start of play.
2024 PARIS OLYMPICS
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Olympic beach volleyball tournament format, explained
The Olympic beach volleyball tournaments on both the men’s and women’s sides begin with preliminary rounds. The 24 teams of each gender are divided into six groups of four teams, and every team plays each of the other three teams in their pool once in round robin format. Two points are awarded to the winner of a pool match, one point to the loser.
After the pool matches conclude, each team is ranked within its own group based on their total number of points. If there is a tie within the pool, the ranking is determined by head-to-head play. If teams from different pools are tied, the ranking is determined by the ratio of matches won/lost, the ratio of sets won/lost and the ratio of points won/lost during pool play.
The first and second ranked teams from each group and the two best ranked third place teams will move on to the Round of 16. The remaining four third place teams will play in the “lucky loser” playoffs — two games to decide the final two teams that will make up the Round of 16 for both the men’s and women’s competitions.
The rest of the tournament is played in single elimination format, from the Round of 16 to the quarterfinals to the semifinals before the final four teams participate in the bronze and gold medal matches.
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2024 Paris Olympics men’s beach volleyball standings
Group A
| Rank | Country | Record | Points |
| 1. | Australia | 0-0 | |
| 2. | Italy | 0-0 | |
| 3. | Qatar | 0-0 | |
| 4. | Sweden | 0-0 |
Group B
| Rank | Country | Record | Points |
| 1. | Chile | 0-0 | |
| 2. | Italy | 0-0 | |
| 3. | Netherlands | 0-0 | |
| 4. | Norway | 0-0 |
Group C
| Rank | Country | Record | Points |
| 1. | Australia | 0-0 | |
| 2. | France | 0-0 | |
| 3. | Germany | 0-0 | |
| 4. | Poland | 0-0 |
Group D
| Rank | Country | Record | Points |
| 1. | Brazil | 0-0 | |
| 2. | Cuba | 0-0 | |
| 3. | Morocco | 0-0 | |
| 4. | United States | 0-0 |
Group E
| Rank | Country | Record | Points |
| 1. | Austria | 0-0 | |
| 2. | Brazil | 0-0 | |
| 3. | Canada | 0-0 | |
| 4. | Czech Republic | 0-0 |
Group F
| Rank | Country | Record | Points |
| 1. | France | 0-0 | |
| 2. | Netherlands | 0-0 | |
| 3. | Spain | 0-0 | |
| 4. | United States | 0-0 |
2024 Paris Olympics women’s beach volleyball standings
Group A
| Rank | Country | Record | Points |
| 1. | Brazil | 0-0 | |
| 2. | Egypt | 0-0 | |
| 3. | Italy | 0-0 | |
| 4. | Spain | 0-0 |
Group B
| Rank | Country | Record | Points |
| 1. | Australia | 0-0 | |
| 2. | Canada | 0-0 | |
| 3. | China | 0-0 | |
| 4. | United States | 0-0 |
Group C
| Rank | Country | Record | Points |
| 1. | Czech Republic | 0-0 | |
| 2. | France | 0-0 | |
| 3. | Germany | 0-0 | |
| 4. | United States | 0-0 |
Group D
| Rank | Country | Record | Points |
| 1. | Canada | 0-0 | |
| 2. | Latvia | 0-0 | |
| 3. | Paraguay | 0-0 | |
| 4. | Switzerland | 0-0 |
Group E
| Rank | Country | Record | Points |
| 1. | Brazil | 0-0 | |
| 2. | Japan | 0-0 | |
| 3. | Lithuania | 0-0 | |
| 4. | Netherlands | 0-0 |
Group F
| Rank | Country | Record | Points |
| 1. | France | 0-0 | |
| 2. | Germany | 0-0 | |
| 3. | Spain | 0-0 | |
| 4. | Switzerland | 0-0 |
Olympic beach volleyball schedule
- Preliminary round: July 27-Aug. 3
- Round of 16: Aug. 3-Aug. 5
- Quarterfinals: Aug. 6 and Aug. 7
- Semifinals: Aug. 8
- Women’s gold and bronze medal games: Aug. 9
- Men’s gold and bronze medal games: Aug. 10
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Olympic indoor volleyball tournament format, explained
The indoor volleyball tournament also begins with a preliminary round. Both the men’s and women’s 12-team fields are split into three pools of four, which each team playing the other three in their group during the round robin stage. Three points are awarded for a 3-0 or 3-1 victory, two points for a 3-2 victory and one point for a match lost 2-3. No points are awarded for games lost by 0-3 or 1-3.
The top-two teams based on points from each pool and the two best-third place teams qualify for the quarterfinals while the remaining four teams are out of medal contention. From the quarterfinals to the medal matches, the format then follows single elimination like the beach tournament.
If there are two or more teams tied at the end of the preliminary round, their rankings are decided by comparing victories, then sets won, then points scored, followed by priority (the team that won the last match between them). If a three-way tie occurs, a classification will be decided based on matches they played against each other.
2024 Paris Olympics men’s indoor volleyball standings
Pool A
| Rank | Country | Record | Points |
| 1. | France | 0-0 | |
| 2. | Slovenia | 0-0 | |
| 3. | Canada | 0-0 | |
| 4. | Serbia | 0-0 |
Pool B
| Rank | Country | Record | Points |
| 1. | Poland | 0-0 | |
| 2. | Italy | 0-0 | |
| 3. | Brazil | 0-0 | |
| 4. | Egypt | 0-0 |
Pool C
| Rank | Country | Record | Points |
| 1. | Japan | 0-0 | |
| 2. | United States | 0-0 | |
| 3. | Argentina | 0-0 | |
| 4. | Germany | 0-0 |
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2024 Paris Olympics women’s indoor volleyball standings
Pool A
| Rank | Country | Record | Points |
| 1. | France | 0-0 | |
| 2. | United States | 0-0 | |
| 3. | China | 0-0 | |
| 4. | Serbia | 0-0 |
Pool B
| Rank | Country | Record | Points |
| 1. | Brazil | 0-0 | |
| 2. | Poland | 0-0 | |
| 3. | Japan | 0-0 | |
| 4. | Kenya | 0-0 |
Pool C
| Rank | Country | Record | Points |
| 1. | Italy | 0-0 | |
| 2. | Turkey | 0-0 | |
| 3. | Netherlands | 0-0 | |
| 4. | Dominican Republic | 0-0 |
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Olympic indoor volleyball schedule
- Preliminary round: July 27-Aug. 4
- Men’s quarterfinals: Aug. 5
- Women’s quarterfinals: Aug. 6
- Men’s semifinals: Aug. 7
- Women’s semifinals: Aug. 8
- Men’s bronze and gold medal matches: Aug. 9 and Aug. 10
- Women’s bronze and gold medal matches: Aug. 10 and Aug. 11
