Volleyball was introduced in Argentina by the YMCA - Youth Christian Association in 1912. The Argentine Volleyball Federation was created in 1932 sharing the same management as Basketball. The number of fans slowly started to grow as a result of its broadcasting. Nowadays, about 30.000 registered players enjoy Volleyball all over the country, not to mention the number of players at school level.
The Men's National team's first participation in an official event was at the South American Championship held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1951 and they finished fourth. The Argentinean Men's team first took part in the World Championship in 1960 in Rio de Janeiro, finishing 15th. Since then, Argentina participated in 8 World Championships and its best ranking was 3rd, which was in Buenos Aires in 1982. At the last World Championship, held in Japan in November 2006, Argentina finished 13th.
They first qualified for the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1984 and finished 6th, and 4 years later in Seoul won the Bronze medal. They finished 6th in Atlanta in 1996, 4th in Sydney in 2000 and finally 5th in Athens in 2004. Argentina qualified to the second round in all Olympic Games.
As for the the World League, Argentina first jointed it in 1996 in Mar del Plata. As host country in 1999, it took place in the final matches with the best 6 teams of the world. In the 2006 edition Argentina played against Brazil, Portugal and Finland, winning 7 consecutive matches, 4 of which as visiting team, losing only one against Finland in Catamarca and 4 played against Champion Brazil, 2 in San Juan and 2 in Belo Horizonte.
On the American level, Argentina took part in 8 editions of the Panamerican Games, obtaining 3 times the bronze medal and became champion in 1995 in the Games played in Mar del Plata, Argentina.
Argentina is one of the countries that has shone in the world competitions in the last years and it has organized two World Senior Men's Championships, in 1982 and in 2002, one World Youth Boys Championship in 1993 and several other Championships in South America.
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A former player and coach, Jon Uriarte wore the Argentinean jersey himself for 12 years and played four World Championships and two Olympic Games. He was part of a group called "Generation 82", who won the bronze medal at the 1982 Men's World Championship in Argentina and at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seul. As a player, he also won three times the Argentine League and nine times foreign Leagues: seven times in Italy, once in France and once in the Netherlands.
His path as a coach started in the Argentinean city of Azul, first coaching Chacarita FC Azul (1991/93 - twice champion) and Azul Volley Club (1993/2001 - champion of the 1993/94 and 2000/01 seasons). After that he went to Australia to coach their Men's National Team (2001/04), allowing them, among other achievement, to qualify for the first time to the Olympic Games in 2004. In 2005 he coached Telemig Minas de Brazil with whom he won one Championship and one second place before returning to Argentina.
Under the coaching of Jon Uriarte, the Argentine Men's National Team put on the best performance in its history at the 2006 World League with seven consecutive victories, and also finished 13th at the 2006 Men's World Championship in Japan.
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