History

The 2003 World Grand Prix will be the 11th edition with the first Grand Prix tournament played in 1993. With the growing success of the women's national teams in the professional and elite women's competition, it is the whole world of women's volleyball that is taking a new dimension. Let's take a brief look at the previous editions.

1993 - 1994 - 1995 - 1996 - 1997 - 1998 - 1999 - 2000 -2001

1993 - The first World Grand Prix for the best women's national teams featured events in Japan, Thailand, Australia, Korea, Malaysia and Chinese Taipei with the finals played in Hong Kong. Eight teams took part (CUB, CHN, RUS, BRA, KOR, JPN, USA, GER) and Cuba claimed the title and US$ 400,000 after defeating China 3-1 in the final

1994 - Four new teams were included in the 2nd edition of the World Grand Prix: Chinese Taipei, Italy, Netherlands and Peru. New sites such as Indonesia, Macao and Philippines were also included. In the finals in Shanghai, Brazil became the champions after dominating rivals Cuba. China took the bronze medal with Japan finishing fourth.

1995 - This year the World Grand Prix went back to the concept of eight teams playing simultaneously in two groups of four, and the eight teams from 1993 were invited. For the first time the tournament went outside Asia to Honolulu and Brazil. Beijing joined the best teams for the first time. As a surprise to many experts, the USA team clinched the title after a strong performance in the final round with Brazil second and China third.

1996 - Shortly after the Atlanta Olympic Games, the eight best teams of the Olympic Tournament played in Japan, Indonesia, China, Hawaii, Macao, Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong. Olympic Champions Cuba could not repeat the same performance from Atlanta and were defeated by Brazil in the final round in Shanghai. Russia took the bronze and the Chinese team had to accept a somehow disappointing fourth place.

1997 - Due to a very tight schedule this year, the defending champions Brazil did not take part in the 1997 edition and was replaced by Italy. For the first time, the finals were played in Japan in the city of Kobe, and Russia won their first World Grand Prix title after a tough match against Cuba. Korea finished third and the host team had to be contented with the fourth place.

1998 - The concept of World Grand Prix was changed this year: the final round played in Hong Kong consists of two semifinals, final and bronze match instead of the traditional round robin system. New host countries were included, for one, India hosting for the first time ever, a world volleyball event where thousands of enthusiastic fans crowded the stadium in Chennai. The fans loved the new format and in front of a capacity crowd of 10,000 in the Hong Kong Coliseum, Brazil won its third title beating Russia in the final, while Cuba took the bronze after a strong performance against China.

1999 - In just one hour, the Russian women's volleyball team overpowered the title defender Brazil, at the final of the I million US$ World Grand Prix' 99, in Yu Xi China. Over 4,200 spectators witnessed the easy straight win of the players coached by Nikolai Karpol, who only needed 3 sets (25-23, 25-22, 25-20) against Brazil to clinch the Gold medal - their second in the history of the World Grand Prix as they won the '97 edition. Strength and height were Russia's main weapons during this final. China recovers from initial service errors and nerves in the first set to capture the Bronze medal in four sets (19-25, 25-20, 25-23, 25-21).

2000 - The Cuban National Women's Volleyball team, winner of 1996 Olympic Games, the 1998 World Championships and the 1999 World Cup secured the Volleyball Grand Slam by winning the 2000 edition of the World Grand Prix in Manila, Philippines in front of a massive 10,750 fans at the Philsports Arena, becoming one of the favorites to the nomination of the "Best Team of the Century". Individual prizes were awarded to the following players: MVP - Lioubov Chachkova - Sokolova (RUS) Best Server - Erika Coimbra (BRA) Best Blocker - Ekaterina Gamova (RUS) Best Spiker - Valle Ana Fernandez (CUB) Best Libero - Li Yan (CHN).

2001 -The United States defeated China three sets to one in the final for their second FIVB World Women’s Grand Prix Finals. The Americans won in 1995 in Shanghai. The USA overpowered China with superior serving, blocking and spiking.
The best scorer for the match for the USA team was No. 2, Danielle Scott; while for China, it was No. 3, Yang Hao.