Nanjing, China returns to the world stage of Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) beach volleyball again when it hosts the FIVB U21 Beach Volleyball World Championships. The 16th double-gender age group event will be held from July 11-16 in Nanjing.
Previously Nanjing hosted the 2014 Youth Olympic Games for athletes under 19 years old. Winning the gold medals were Russia’s Oleg Stoyanovskiy/Artem Yarzutkin for the men and Brazil’s Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa/Ana Patricia Silva for the women.
Long the developing sand of FIVB Beach Volleyball next gen stars, the last FIVB U21 World Championships were held in 2016 in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Winning the men’s FIVB U21 World Championships in 2016 in Lucerne was Brazil’s George Wanderley/Arthur Mariano while the women’s FIVB U21 World Championships gold medal was won by Brazil’s Duda/Ana Patricia, the same team that won the Youth Olympic gold medal in Nanjing in 2014.
In the first 15 years of the FIVB U21 Beach Volleyball World Championships, Brazil has garnered the most final four placements, most medals and most gold medals in both genders. In U21 men’s competition, Brazil has 11 final four placements and 10 total medals including five gold medals. Other countries with men’s gold medals have been Poland with three, Italy and Spain with two each and with one each has been Canada, Latvia and the Ukraine.
In the first 15 years of the U21 women’s championships, Brazil has been even more dominant with 12 final four placements and 11 total medals including seven gold medals. Other countries with women’s gold medals have been Poland and Switzerland with two each and with one each has been Canada, the Netherlands, Russia and the United States.
The FIVB U21 World Championships is the only age-group event on the 2017 FIVB international schedule.
The FIVB age-group world champions were expanded to four in 2014 with the additional of the FIVB U17 World Championships and remain as a key element that FIVB President Dr Ary S. Graça F° and his leadership team has for FIVB international beach volleyball.
The age-group FIVB World Championships have historically seen many of the young stars of today building their experience level to advance up the ladder in international competition to the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.
The format of all the FIVB Beach Volleyball international tournaments – whether pro or age group events are the same, featuring pool play followed by single elimination knockout rounds.