The
first edition of the World Cup, for men, took
place in 1965 in Warsaw. This prestigious event
was played every four years thereafter except in
1973, when the men’s edition scheduled for
Montevideo fell through. The women’s World Cup was
precisely inaugurated in 1973. In 1991, the
international calendar was modified, moving this
quadrennial competition to a year prior to the
Olympic Games, but still remaining a quadrennial
event. Since then the World Cup serves as an
Olympic qualifier and the host country has been
Japan, where prestigious sponsors and media and
very enthusiastic public set the scene for an
extremely popular and reputable event.
Japan
has been the only nation to participate in all the
men and women’s
editions since the World Cup’s
creation. So far, the USSR men’s team holds a
record of 4 gold medals with an absence in 1995.
Three-time gold medallists, the Cuban women’s
team, who participated in all the editions, proved
to be the practically unbeatable champions.
The 1999 edition, co-organised
by Fuji TV, Japan Volleyball Federation and the
FIVB will gather up the best of the 12 women’s and
12 men’s national teams in 13 competition cities
distributed throughout Japan. This year’s edition
will be an ideal opportunity to see how the new
Rally Point scoring, introduced at the last FIVB
World Congress in November 1998 in Tokyo, can make
Volleyball more exciting to watch for the
spectators as well as television viewers.
The
first edition of the World Cup, for men, took
place in 1965 in Warsaw. This prestigious event
was played every four years thereafter except in
1973, when the men’s edition scheduled for
Montevideo fell through. The women’s World Cup was
precisely inaugurated in 1973. In 1991, the
international calendar was modified, moving this
quadrennial competition to a year prior to the
Olympic Games, but still remaining a quadrennial
event. Since then the World Cup serves as an
Olympic qualifier and the host country has been
Japan, where prestigious sponsors and media and
very enthusiastic public set the scene for an
extremely popular and reputable event.
Japan
has been the only nation to participate in all the
men and women’s
editions since the World Cup’s
creation. So far, the USSR men’s team holds a
record of 4 gold medals with an absence in 1995.
Three-time gold medallists, the Cuban women’s
team, who participated in all the editions, proved
to be the practically unbeatable champions.
