The North, Central and Caribbean; Asia and Europe Confederations completed their Continental Cup tournaments over the weekend with four new countries – Canada, Japan, Norway and Russia - joining the list of countries already qualified for beach volleyball at the London Olympic Games.

Qualified Olympic countries from Continental Cup

The second place and third placed teams at each of the Continental Cup Final events qualified for the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Cup Olympic Qualification tournament, set to take place in Moscow, Russia starting on Thursday and running until Sunday. The top two National Federations per gender from this competition will claim the final two berths to the Games, completing the beach volleyball line-up.

FIVB World Cup Olympic Qualification participating countries

* The fourth place at the Europe Continental Cup events qualified for the FIVB World Cup Olympic Qualification Tournament due to the need to have  an extra team since hosts Russia will also be competing. Europe was previously chosen as the continent to provide the extra team at a drawing of lots during the 2012 FIVB Board of Administration meeting in March.

Olympic Rankings

On June 18, a total of 14 countries qualified for the Olympics via the Olympic rankings, 12 via the women’s and 11 via the men with Brazil, USA and Germany claiming two spots each in both genders while the Czech Republic also qualified two spots in the women’s competition and Switzerland and Latvia two in the men.

The final list of countries qualified for the Olympic Games via the Olympic ranking is listed below:

As of 25th June 2012, the overall list of countries qualified for the Olympic Games via the Continental Cup, the Olympic ranking and as host country is the following:

With two more vacancies per gender still be confirmed, the total number of countries qualified for the Olympic beach volleyball competition is 23 (14 via the Olympic ranking and nine via the Continental Cup), which representes the same number as at the Beijing Olympic Games.

The final determination of teams that will represent each country will be confirmed by the National Olympic Committee and national federation of each qualifying country and announced by July 9.  The drawing of lots for pool assignments at the Olympic Games will take place on July 19 during the A1 Grand Slam in Klagenfurt, Austria. The match schedule will be confirmed by July 23 at the latest following confirmation by the Olympic Broadcasting Service, LOCOG and the FIVB.

Countries rather than individuals qualify for the Olympics. The 16 highest ranked NOCs/NFs (with a maximum of two teams per NOC/NF) in the Olympic ranking as of June 18, 2012 qualified for the Olympic Games. The Olympic ranking takes into account the best 12 results on the FIVB SWATCH World Tour from January 1, 2011 to June 17, 2012, the FIVB SWATCH World Championships and the AVC, Europe and NORCECA Continental Tour Finals.

New Olympic Selection Criteria

Only 32 days remain until the beach volleyball competition begins at the iconic Horse Guards Parade in the heart of central London, with action scheduled to take place from July 28 through August 9. With the sport set for its fifth Olympic outing, the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB), the international governing body for both beach volleyball and volleyball, is using a new qualification method for this year’s Olympic Games.

With a quota once again of two teams maximum per gender, per country completing the 24-team fields for each gender, the FIVB announced two years ago that just 16 spots will be filled through the Olympic rankings compared to 24 in the past. An additional spot has been given to Great Britain as the host country, while the remaining seven spots have been determined differently than in the past four Olympic Games with the introduction of the Continental Cup and the FIVB World Cup Olympic Qualification.

Olympic Games Qualification Summary (24 vacancies per gender)