Lausanne, Switzerland, August 21, 2016 — Spiced up with rosters filled with Olympians from all over the world returning from the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) now heads to the United States for the regular-season finale of the internationally-televised 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.
The 2016 FIVB World Tour regular season concludes in Southern California with the double-gender ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball at the $800,000 FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam to be held Tuesday through Sunday on a purpose-built venue at Alamitos Beach adjacent to Marina Green Park on East Shoreline Drive.
Visiting the United States for the second time and final time this year on the FIVB World Tour, there are 50 men’s teams from 25 countries and 47 women’s teams from 18 countries coming to America for the ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball at the $800,000 FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam. This will be the fourth consecutive year that the FIVB World Tour has stopped in Long Beach, Calif.
Both defending Long Beach champions have returned for this year. Helping lead the field this week at the $800 FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam will be Brazil’s newly-crowned 2016 Olympic champions Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt and Brazil Olympians Larissa Franca/Talita Antunes, the two defending gold medal teams from the 2015 FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam.
Overall, the field in Long Beach will include 12 1/2 men’s Olympic teams (9 of the top 10 seeds for Long Beach) and 10 1/2 women’s Olympic tandems (seven of the top 10 seeds for Long Beach) who were competing for the last two weeks in Brazil.
The ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball at the $800,000 FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam will be the 22nd men’s event of the season and 19th women’s event on the 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour that started with three events at the end of 2015.
ASICS WSOVB
While the cornerstone of the beach volleyball celebration is the $800,000 FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam (regular season finale of the 2016 FIVB World Tour), the ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball encompasses a wide variety of additional elements . Also part of the beach festival will be live entertainment, a special celebrity center court match, an expansive vendor’s village, multiple open, junior and youth beach volleyball tournaments and the very special legends of the game tribute dinner all at the event venue.
For complete details regarding the entire ASICS WSOBV lineup of events and activities including premium seating tickets, visit the event website at www.wsobv.com.
LONG BEACH SCHEDULE
The $800,000 FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam will have 32 main draw teams per gender. The format is the same for each gender starting Tuesday and ending Sunday. Qualifying tournaments will be held on Tuesday for each gender to determine the final eight teams for each 32-team main draw. On Wednesday and Thursday, teams will be split into eight, four-team pools for each gender to play three matches over the two days. The top three teams in the eight pools (24 total teams) will advance from pool play to the single-elimination knockout rounds starting Friday.
On Friday and Saturday, there will be three rounds of single-elimination with the quarterfinals and semifinals for each gender. The women will hold their quarterfinals on Friday with their semifinals on Saturday.
For the men on Saturday, matches will be the men’s quarterfinals and men’s semifinals. On Sunday at the $800,000 FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam, the medal matches will be held for each gender. The awarding ceremonies will follow the gold medal match for each gender.
As needed, country quota playoff matches will be played on Monday for each gender to determine the final teams in their respective qualification tournaments.
SWATCH FIVB WORLD TOUR FINALS
As part of the second season of the sponsor partnership, the Swatch FIVB Beach Volleyball Season Final will also be held again. Being held in Toronto, Canada, the finale will be held on Sept. 13-18. The event will again feature the top eight teams and four wildcards for each gender from the 2016 FIVB World Tour. This illustrious group will compete for a total purse of $500,000 with the winning men and women’s tandems receiving $100,000 each. The inaugural Swatch FIVB World Tour Season Final was held last September in the USA at Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
USA’S FIVB HISTORY
Long Beach is one of 12 U.S. cities that have hosted an international FIVB beach volleyball event. Others have been Atlanta, Carson, Calif., Chicago, Cincinnati, Ohio, Clearwater, Fla., Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Hermosa Beach, Calif., Los Angeles, Miami, New York and St. Petersburg, Fla. The event in Atlanta was the 1996 Olympic Games, the first at which Beach Volleyball was a medal sport. The event in Fort Lauderdale in 2015 was the inaugural Swatch FIVB World Tour Finals.
The other 2016 FIVB World Tour event held in the USA this season was the double-gender $150,000 FIVB Cincinnati Open in Ohio, held on May 17-22 which was during the Olympic qualifying window.
Through the 2016 Cincinnati event, the United States has hosted a total of 30 FIVB World Tour events (15 men, 15 women) with Brazil is tied for the lead in the medal count for men and leads the women.
In the men’s totals after 15 events in the USA, Brazil and the USA have 15 medals each, followed by Argentina, Canada, Norway, Spain and Switzerland with two each and with one men’s medal each in the USA are Italy, the Netherlands and Poland.
After 15 FIVB World Tour women’s events held in the United States through 2015, Brazil leads the medal parade with 21 total medals followed by the USA with 15, Australia and Germany with three each and with one women’s medal each in the USA are China, the Slovak Republic and Spain.
With the first USA visit being held in Miami, Florida in 1994, the 1997 event was the inaugural FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, held in the Tennis Center stadium at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA).
WELCOME TO LONG BEACH
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California with its population of nearly 475,000.
The city is a dominant maritime center of the United States. The Port of Long Beach is the United States' second busiest container port and one of the world's largest shipping ports. The city also maintains a large oil industry with the substance being found both underground and offshore.
TOP SEEDS
Outstanding Olympians abound in the field for the $800,000 FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam.
The preliminary top-seeded men’s teams for the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam are Brazil’s Olympic champions Alison/Bruno Schmidt, Latvia’s second-seeded Olympians Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Janis Smedins, USA’s third-seeded Olympians Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena, Brazil’s fourth-seeded Olympians Pedro Solberg/Evandro Goncalves and USA’s fifth-seeded Olympians Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson.
The second-five preliminary men’s pre-seeds competing in Long Beach are Canada’s sixth-seeded Olympians Chaim Schalk/Ben Saxton, Poland’s seventh-seeded Olympians Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak, Spain’s eighth-seeded Olympians Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera, Brazil’s ninth-seeded Gustavo Carvalhaes/Andre Stein and Mexico’s 10th-seeded Olympians Juan Virgen/Lombardo Ontiveros.
The other Rio Olympics men’s teams entered and their seed in Long Beach are: Poland’s 12th-seeded Olympians Mariusz Prudel/Grzegorz Fijalek, Chile’s 14th-seeded Olympian cousins Marco Grimalt/Esteban Grimalt and Canada’s 16th-seeded Olympians Josh Binstock/Sam Schachter.
Italy’s 21st-seeded Olympian Alex Ranghieri will also be competing in Long Beach, but instead of his normal teammate Adrian Carambula, Ranghieri will be teamed with Marco Caminati.
For the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam, the top preliminary pre-seeded women’s teams are Brazil’s top-seeded Olympians Larissa/Talita, USA’s second-seeded Olympic bronze medalists Kerri Walsh Jennings/April Ross, Germany’s third-seeded Olympians Karla Borger/Britta Buthe, Brazil’s fourth-seeded Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa/Elize Maia and Germany’s fifth-seeded Julia Suda/Chantal Laboureur.
The second-five preliminary pre-seeded women’s team competing in Long Beach are Poland’s sixth-seeded Olympians Kinga Kolosinska/Monika Brzostek, Spain’s seventh-seeded Olympians Liliana Fernandez/Elsa Baquerizo, USA’s eighth-seeded Olympians Lauren Fendrick/Brooke Sweat, Brazil’s Juliana Felisberta/Taiana Lima and Switzerland’s 10th-seeded Olympians Isabelle Forrer/Anouk Verge-Depre.
The other Rio Olympics women’s teams and their Long Beach seed are: Czech Republic’s 11th-seeded Olympians Marketa Slukova/Barbora Hermannova, Argentina’s 12th-seeded Olympians Ana Gallay/Georgina Klug and Netherlands’ 15th-seeded Olympians Jantine vander Vlist/Sophie van Gestel.
Venezuela’s 22nd-seeded Olympian Olaya Pazo will also be playing in Long Beach, but instead of her normal teammate Norisbeth Agudo, Pazo will be teamed with her sister Rebeca Pazo.
FIVB LONG BEACH GRAND SLAM PURSE/POINTS
The gold medal teams at the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam will split $57,000 and 800 points, the silver $43,000 and 720 points, the bronze $32,000 and 640 points and fourth place $24,000 and 560 points.
TEAM USA
As the host nation for the ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball at the $800,000 FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam, the United States has four men’s teams pre-seeded into the men’s main draw for this event, two more in the men’s qualification tournament and one on the reserve list. USA’s men’s main draw teams are Olympians Dalhausser/Lucena, Olympians Gibb/Patterson, 11th-seeded John Hyden/Tri Bourne and 20th-seeded brothers Taylor Crabb/Trevor Crabb..
USA’s men’s qualification teams for this event are Ryan Doherty/John Mayer and William Allen/Theodore Brunner and the USA’s men’s team currently on the reserve list is Mark Burik/Stafford Slick.
As the host nation for the ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball at the $800,000 FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam, the United States has four women’s teams pre-seeded into the women’s main draw for this event, two more in the women’s qualification tournament and two on the reserve list. USA’s confirmed women’s main draw teams are Olympians Walsh Jennings/A. Ross, Olympians Fendrick/Sweat, 19th-seeded Lane Carico/Summer Ross and 24th-seeded Kelly Claes/Sara Hughes.
USA’s women’s qualification teams for this event are Jennifer Kessy/Jennifer Fopma and Irene Hester/Emily Day and the USA’s women’s teams currently on the reserve list are Kendra Vanzwieten/Kimberly Dicello and Kelley Larsen/Betsi Flint.
ON THE HORIZON
Following the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, there are two more events scheduled on the 2016 FIVB World Tour calendar. First event scheduled is in the United States--the ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball at the $800,000 FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam (Aug. 23-28) and the Swatch FIVB World Tour Finals (Sept. 13-18, Toronto, Canada). The Swatch FIVB World Tour Finals, with $100,000 going to each winning team, will feature the top eight point leaders in each gender from the current FIVB World Tour plus four wild card teams in each gender.
GROWING HISTORY
The ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball at the $800,000 FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam in the United States will be the 350th men’s tournament since the FIVB began play in 1987 and the 311th FIVB women’s tournament since their competition started in 1992.
FIVB 2016
Based in Lausanne, Switzerland as the international governing body for the Olympic sports of Beach Volleyball and Volleyball, the 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball calendar features a purse of US$8.25 million with a season that extends from last October to this October, competing at 22 venues in 12 countries. The schedule includes four FIVB Grand Slams, four Swatch FIVB Major Series events, 13 FIVB Opens and the special Swatch FIVB World Tour Finals. The showcase event will be the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil (Aug. 6-18).
The 2015 portion of the 2016 FIVB World Tour calendar started in October in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and included two more open events prior to the remainder of the schedule resuming at the FIVB Kish Island Open in Iran in February.
FIVB EVENT FORMAT
Implemented in 2013, the format of all the FIVB Beach Volleyball international tournaments – whether FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, FIVB Beach Volleyball Grand Slam or FIVB Beach Volleyball Open – are the same, featuring pool play followed by single elimination knockout rounds. Country Quota playoffs returned as needed in 2015 to determine the final teams for the qualification tournament.