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Venezuela's Men have been hovering among the world’s top 10 to 20 teams in the FIVB rankings since 2000.

The current team is made up of players who claimed third place at the Junior World Championships, second place at the Youth Championships and first and second place at the Youth, Junior and Senior South American Championships.

They also have experience from their time at Club in overseas National Leagues.

Venezuela has hosted FIVB World League matches in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, with the latter edition seeing their best performance.

A notable result recently was when Venezuela beat Brazil and Cuba on their way to becoming 2003 Pan American Games Champions.

The team first took part in the FIVB World Cup in 2003 when they finished in eighth place with four wins against seven losses.

In the last two FIVB World Championships, they have finished in joint-17th place.

Venezuela won the right to participate for the first time in the Olympics by winning the South American Olympic Qualification Tournament in January in Formosa, Argentina, to advance to Beijing.

They beat Paraguay, Chile and Uruguay in straight sets before facing hosts Argentina in the final match of the round-robin event. In an epic five-setter, Venezuela overcame their opponents 25-22, 25-27, 25-22, 22-25, 15-12 to clinch their berth in Beijing.

It was sweet revenge for the Venezuelans, who missed out on a place at the Athens Games when Argentina claimed first place at the Olympic Qualification Tournament in Venezuela.

The Venezuelans faced a tough group in the 2008 World League, up against France, Serbia and Brazil but have been cheered on by crowds of up to 12,000 for their home matches in Caracas. The popularity of Volleyball in the country is growing all the time and all the fans' eyes will be on their heroes in Beijing, the Venezuelans hoping they can spring a surprise on their first appearance in the event.