Volleyball

History

Volleyball started in 1895 - a year before the first edition of the Olympics - at the Young Men's Christian Association, in the American state of Massachusetts.  The idea came from Pastor Lawrence Rider, who suggested to William G. Morgan the creation of a fast paced sport, less intense than basketball, which had rapidly reached high levels of popularity.

Influenced by tennis, Morgan decided to put up a net between two teams, thus, avoiding physical contact, a characteristic of basketball. Initially, the net was set up at a height of 1.98m. The game was called ‘mintonette’ by Morgan, but due to its style and fast pace it began being called volleyball.

The game developed at an impressive pace. A year after being created in the United States, there were people playing the sport on the other side of the world, in countries like Japan. The game disseminated so fast and efficiently that today, the sport holds an impressive record: the International Volleyball Federation (FIBV) is today the federation with the highest number of member states out of all sports, with 220.

The sport's Olympic history has an interesting, rather uncommon fact. The men’s and women’s competitions were included in the Olympic programme at the same time for the 1968 Games in Tokyo. Since then, when the Soviet Union won the men’s event and Japan the women’s, the sport has featured at every edition of the Olympics.

Volleyball in Brazil has turned into a success story to be followed by other sports. With one winning generation after another, from Athens 2004 to London 2012, Brazil has always finished on the podium. During this time, the country has won a gold (2004) medal and two silver (2008 and 2012) with the men, in addition to two the gold (2008 and 2012) won by the ladies.

Curiosities

Bouncing back

Manager José Roberto Guimarães and the Brazilian women’s national volleyball team may say that they have lived the good and bad side of an Olympics. In Athens in 2004, the team arrived at the Games as favourites for the title, after undisputable remarkable results. In the semi-final, they were beating Russia 2 sets to 1, with the score of 24-19 in the fourth set. However, somehow the Brazilians let the match point slip away and saw the Russians come back, to beat them 3-2. It would have been the first time that they would have made it through to the final.

For the next four years, the manager, players and technical staff were showered with criticism, having lost the trust of fans and the media. Nevertheless, in 2008 in Beijing, they redeemed themselves. After steam rolling over Japan in the quarter-finals and China in the semis, they were through to the Olympic final. Their opponents were the Americans, who had seen Cuba (Brazil's archrival) off rather easily. Confident and led by José Roberto Guimarães – Olympic gold medal winner at the 1992 Games in Barcelona with the men -, they beat the Americans 3-1, scooping up the gold for the first time.

After exorcising the belief that they usually lost important matches in Beijing, they almost messed it up at the 2012 London Games. With an irregular campaign, Brazil had to overcome a lot of problems to qualify from the group round. They lost to South Korea and the United States and had to face the ever feared Russians in the quarter-final. It was a close match, but Brazil won 3-2 and was through to the semi-final. The semi-final was easier and they beat Japan 3-0 and, making it to the final.

The final was a thrilling match though. Beaten by the strong American team in the group round, the Brazilians lost the first set by the unbelievable score of 25-11, in only 21 minutes.  However, that was it for the United States. Brazil came back, winning the next three sets (25-17, 25-20 and 25-17) and won the Olympic title for the second time in London.

Rigid methods

Volleyball has seen some interesting characters throughout time, but who were not necessarily on the court.  Watching from the bench, some managers rise to fame because of how they behave off-court, particularly during the time-outs.  

The forerunner of this so-called style was Hirofumi Daimatsu from Japan. An accounting manager in a weaving mill, where 10 out of his 12 players – in the women's national team - worked at, Daimatsu acted like a general. In addition to gruelling training sessions, that lasted six hours, seven days a week, the Japanese manager would go as far as hitting his players.  Despite his somewhat reproachable methods, while he was in command, the Japanese won the gold medal at the Tokyo Games in 1964, winning every single game and only losing one set.

However, the most famous tyrant is Nikolay Karpol from Russia. Trained by the Soviet School, he would scream so much at his players during time-outs that it would embarrass those watching the game. Karpol’s behaviour led him to being booed by fans throughout the world, but he did win the Olympic title twice, in 1980 and 1988. Despite his explosive temper, the Russian is one of the sport’s biggest winners and has had his name made eternal in the Volleyball Hall of Fame.

See also

Confederação Brasileira de Voleibol
Site: www.cbv.com.br
Federação Internacional de Voleibol (FIVB): www.fivb.org