Volleyball Grand Prix

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Grand Prix Logo.

The Grand Prix is a women's volleyball competition. Played every year since 1993, it is considered the women's version of the World League. In 2004, it distributed US$ 1.295 million in prizes.

1 History
- 1.1 Origins
- 1.2 Previous winners
2 Competition formula
3 Palmarès
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Origins

The Grand Prix was created in 1993 as part of the FIVB's marketing strategy to promote the sport of volleyball by establishing annual international competitions. It was modelled after the World League, a successful event for men that had been introduced three years before.

The Grand Prix made women's volleyball very popular in East Asia; the lack of interest on the part of the audience is nevertheless still significant throughout the world. Today (2004), the competition is maintained mainly with the support of Asian investors.

The budget for prize money has been growing steadily since 1993, but at a rather slow pace. The figures have reached $1.295 million dollars in 2004 - meager when compared to the World League's $13 million.

The predominance of Asian sponsors determined the first major break with the World League's formula. Most of the cities that host preliminary round matches are located in Asia. A host country may or may not have a national volleyball team involved in the competition. A second break was introduced in recent years: in some continents, teams must qualify to participate in the competition.

[edit] Previous winners

The history of Grand Prix's previous winners is a clear indication of how women's volleyball has been dominated, since the early 1990s, by four teams: Cuba, Brazil, Russia and China. Along with two-time winner USA, they are the only ones to hold a title at this competition as of 2005.

In 1993, the Cubans padded their already impressive record of a gold medal in the 1992 Olympic Games by winning the first edition of the Grand Prix. They were also running for the gold in 1994, but were defeated by an underranked Brazil: at that time, the Brazilians had never been able to catch a single medal in any major women's volleyball competition.

In the following years, Brazil proved beyond any doubt that its time as underdog was over. It lost the finals in 1995 to USA, but came back in 1996 for a second Grand Prix title, winning all the matches that made up the Final Four round in five sets.

The Brazilians withdrew from the competition in 1997, and the winner was Russia. But they were back in 1998 for another gold. Russia took revenge in 1999, and defeated Brazil in straight sets to win their second Grand Prix title.

Russia's win in 2002 made them, like Brazil, three-time winners. But the South Americans untied the score by conquering the 2004, 2005 and 2006 editions of the tournament. The winners in 2000, 2001 and 2003 were Cuba, the USA and China, respectively.

Team	Titles	Edition
Cuba	2	1993, 2000
Brazil	6	1994, 1996, 1998, 2004, 2005, 2006
U.S.A.	2	1995, 2001
Russia	3	1997, 1999, 2002
China	1	2003

[edit] Competition formula

The Grand Prix's competition formula has proved less stable than the World League's. In the following years, major changes are likely to be introduced in an attempt to make women's volleyball more attractive to the audience. Some of the rules that are still in practice as of 2004 are:

The Grand Prix has qualification procedures. They are not the same in every continent: teams may have to play a specific qualification tournament, or may qualify based on the FIVB World Rankings.
The competition is divided in at least two phases: a preliminary round, with a system of rotating host cities; and one or more final rounds, with one or more host nations.
The preliminary round is divided in weeks. Each week, the participating teams are organized in pools, and each team plays one match against all other teams in its pool.
All games in a pool take place over a weekend in the same city. The cities are mostly located in Asia. Pools may be hosted in countries which are not actually involved in the competition.
When all matches of the preliminary round have been played, the top n teams (overall standings) qualify for the final round(s), and the remaining ones leave the competition. The value of n depends on the number of participating teams and the format that will be employed in the finals, but it is usually five or six.
If involved in the competition, host nation(s) automatically qualify for the final round(s).
The FIVB has tried different formats for the final round(s). Originally, it was a round-robin "Top Four" system in which four teams played against each other and the winner was determined by number of wins, set average, point average, direct confrontation. For some years now (2004), the most commonly used is a mixed format: quarter-finalists are organized in two pools, and the top two teams in each pool play semi-finals and finals according to the Olympic format.
In the preliminary round, a team is usually given the right to work with a list of eighteen players, from which the coach builds the twelve-player line-up that will be employed in a particular weekend. For the final round(s), only twelve players are allowed.

[edit] Palmarès

Year	Host City (finals)	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
1993	Hong Kong	CUB	CHN	RUS	BRA	KOR	JPN	USA, GER
1994	Shanghai, China	BRA	CUB	CHN	JPN	KOR	USA	RUS	ITA	NED	GER	PER	TPE
1995	Shanghai, China	USA	BRA	CUB	CHN	KOR	RUS	JPN	GER
1996	Shanghai, China	BRA	CUB	RUS	CHN	USA	KOR	NED	JPN
1997	Kobe, Japan	RUS	CUB	KOR	JPN	CHN	ITA	NED	USA
1998	Hong Kong, China	BRA	RUS	CUB	CHN	ITA	KOR	JPN	USA
1999	Yu Xi, China	RUS	BRA	CHN	ITA	CUB	KOR	JPN	NED
2000	Manila, Philippines	CUB	RUS	BRA	CHN	USA	KOR	ITA	JPN
2001	Macau, China	USA	CHN	RUS	CUB	BRA	JPN	KOR	GER
2002	Hong Kong, China	RUS	CHN	GER	BRA	JPN	USA	CUB	THA
2003	Andria, Italy	CHN	RUS	USA	NED	ITA	KOR	GER, BRA		JPN, THA		CUB, CAN
2004	Reggio Calabria, Italy	BRA	ITA	USA	CUB	CHN	GER	RUS	POL	JPN	THA	KOR	DOM
2005	Sendai, Japan	BRA	ITA	CHN	CUB	JPN	NED	POL	USA	KOR	GER	DOM	THA
2006	Reggio Calabria, Italy at the PalaCalafiore	BRA	RUS	ITA	CUB	CHN	JPN	USA	DOM	KOR	AZE	THA	POL
2007	Ningbo, China
AZE,Azerbaijan; BRA, Brazil; CAN, Canada; CHN, China; CUB, Cuba; DOM, Dominican Republic; GER, Germany; ITA, Italy; JPN, Japan; KOR, Korea; NED, The Netherlands; PER, Peru; POL, Poland; RUS, Russia; THA, Thailand; TPE, Chinese Taipei; USA, The United States.