FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix

FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2015 FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix
Sport Volleyball
Founded 1993
No. of teams 28
Continent International (FIVB)
Most recent champion(s)  United States (6th title)
Most titles  Brazil (10 titles)

The FIVB World Grand Prix is a women's volleyball competition. Created in 1993, the tournament is annual. The men's version of the competition is called World League. This event should not be confused with the other international volleyball competitions, the World Championship, the World Cup and the World Grand Champions Cup.

History

Origins

Old FIVB World Grand Prix logo

World 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 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.

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 five-times 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, 2006, 2008 and 2009, and, afterwards, also 2013 and 2014 editions of the tournament. The winners in 2000, 2001 and 2003 were Cuba, USA and China, respectively. Netherlands won their first trophy in 2007. In 2010, 2011 and 2012 USA won three consecutive gold medals.

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:

Appearance

China and Japan are the only teams that participated in all editions of the World Grand Prix.

Team App. First Last
 China 24 1993 2016
 Japan 24 1993 2016
 Brazil 23 1993 2016
 United States 23 1993 2016
 Cuba 22 1993 2016
 Russia 20 1993 2016
 Italy 18 1994 2016
 Germany 17 1993 2016
 South Korea 17 1993 2014
 Thailand 14 2002 2016
 Dominican Republic 13 2004 2016
 Netherlands 13 1994 2016
 Poland 13 2004 2016
 Kazakhstan 7 2007 2016
 Puerto Rico 7 2009 2016
 Argentina 6 2011 2016
 Serbia 6 2011 2016
 Turkey 6 2008 2016
 Peru 5 1994 2016
 Algeria 4 2013 2016
 Bulgaria 4 2013 2016
 Canada 4 2003 2016
 Chinese Taipei 4 1994 2012
 Czech Republic 4 2013 2016
 Australia 3 2014 2016
 Belgium 3 2014 2016
 Croatia 3 2014 2016
 Kenya 3 2014 2016
 Mexico 3 2014 2016
 Colombia 2 2015 2016
 Azerbaijan 1 2006 2006

Results

Year Final host Final 3rd place match Teams
IR / FR
Champions Score Runners-up 3rd place Score 4th place
1993 Hong Kong
Hong Kong

Cuba
3–0
China

Russia
3–1
Brazil
8 / 6
1994 China
Shanghai

Brazil
Round-robin
Cuba

China
Round-robin
Japan
12 / 4
1995 China
Shanghai

United States
Round-robin
Brazil

Cuba
Round-robin
China
8 / 4
1996 China
Shanghai

Brazil
Round-robin
Cuba

Russia
Round-robin
China
8 / 4
1997 Japan
Kobe

Russia
Round-robin
Cuba

South Korea
Round-robin
Japan
8 / 4
1998 Hong Kong
Hong Kong

Brazil
3–0
Russia

Cuba
3–1
China
8 / 4
1999 China
Yuxi

Russia
3–0
Brazil

China
3–1
Italy
8 / 4
2000 Philippines
Quezon City

Cuba
3–1
Russia

Brazil
3–1
China
8 / 4
2001 Macau
Macau

United States
3–1
China

Russia
3–0
Cuba
8 / 8
2002 Hong Kong
Hong Kong

Russia
3–1
China

Germany
3–1
Brazil
8 / 4
2003 Italy
Andria

China
Round-robin
Russia

United States
Round-robin
Netherlands
12 / 6
2004 Italy
Reggio Calabria

Brazil
3–1
Italy

United States
3–0
Cuba
12 / 6
2005 Japan
Sendai

Brazil
Round-robin
Italy

China
Round-robin
Cuba
12 / 6
2006 Italy
Reggio Calabria

Brazil
3–1
Russia

Italy
3–2
Cuba
12 / 6
2007 China
Ningbo

Netherlands
Round-robin
China

Italy
Round-robin
Russia
12 / 6
2008 Japan
Yokohama

Brazil
Round-robin
Cuba

Italy
Round-robin
United States
12 / 6
2009 Japan
Tokyo

Brazil
Round-robin
Russia

Germany
Round-robin
Netherlands
12 / 6
2010 China
Ningbo

United States
Round-robin
Brazil

Italy
Round-robin
China
12 / 6
2011 Macau
Macau

United States
3–0
Brazil

Serbia
3–0
Russia
16 / 8
2012 China
Ningbo

United States
Round-robin
Brazil

Turkey
Round-robin
Thailand
16 / 6
2013 Japan
Sapporo

Brazil
Round-robin
China

Serbia
Round-robin
Japan
20 / 6
2014 Japan
Tokyo

Brazil
Round-robin
Japan

Russia
Round-robin
Turkey
28 / 6
2015 United States
Omaha

United States
Round-robin
Russia

Brazil
Round-robin
China
28 / 6
2016 Thailand
Bangkok
28 / 6

Medals summary

Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 Brazil105217
2 United States6028
3 Russia36413
4 Cuba2428
5 China1539
6 Netherlands1001
7 Italy0246
8 Japan0101
9 Germany0022
 Serbia0022
11 South Korea0011
 Turkey0011
Total23232369

MVP by edition

Performance by team

The most successful teams, as of 2015, have been: Brazil, 10 times (1994, 1996, 1998, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2014); and United States, 6 times (1995, 2001, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015). The competition has been won 3 times by Russia (1997, 1999, 2002), twice by Cuba (1993, 2000) and once by China (2003) and the Netherlands (2007).[2][3][4]

Team Hong Kong
1993
(8)
China
1994
(12)
China
1995
(8)
China
1996
(8)
Japan
1997
(8)
Hong Kong
1998
(8)
China
1999
(8)
Philippines
2000
(8)
Macau
2001
(8)
Hong Kong
2002
(8)
Italy
2003
(12)
Italy
2004
(12)
Japan
2005
(12)
Italy
2006
(12)
China
2007
(12)
Japan
2008
(12)
Japan
2009
(12)
China
2010
(12)
Macau
2011
(16)
China
2012
(16)
Japan
2013
(20)
Japan
2014
(28)
United States
2015
(28)
Thailand
2016
(28)
Total
 Algeria--------------------20th28th27thQ3
 Argentina------------------14th15th16th17th19thQ5
 Australia---------------------27th24thQ2
 Azerbaijan-------------10th----------1
 Belgium---------------------13th10thQ2
 Brazil4th1st2nd1st-1st2nd3rd5th4th7th1st1st1st5th1st1st2nd2nd2nd1st1st3rdQ22
 Bulgaria--------------------9th21st17thQ3
 Canada----------11th----------19th18thQ3
 China2nd3rd4th4th5th4th3rd4th2nd2nd1st5th3rd5th2nd5th5th4th8th5th2nd5th4thQ23
 Chinese Taipei-12th------------12th--12th-16th----4
 Colombia----------------------23rdQ1
 Croatia---------------------23rd20thQ2
 Cuba1st2nd3rd2nd2nd3rd5th1st4th7th11th4th4th4th7th2nd--11th6th19th20th25thQ21
 Czech Republic--------------------14th22nd15thQ3
 Dominican Republic-----------12th11th8th11th9th11th8th12th12th10th12th12thQ12
 Germany8th10th8th-----8th3rd7th6th10th--8th3rd9th13th7th11th10th7thQ16
 Italy-8th--6th5th4th7th--5th2nd2nd3rd3rd3rd-3rd7th10th5th9th5thQ17
 Japan6th4th7th8th4th7th7th8th6th5th9th9th5th6th9th6th6th5th5th9th4th2nd6thQ23
 Kazakhstan--------------10th12th--15th-17th24th26thQ6
 Kenya---------------------25th21stQ2
 Mexico---------------------26th28thQ2
 Netherlands-9th-7th7th-8th---4th-6th-1st-4th7th--12th14th13thQ12
 Peru-11th----------------16th--18th22ndQ4
 Poland-----------8th7th12th6th10th7th6th10th8th15th16th14thQ12
 Puerto Rico----------------10th11th-13th18th15th16thQ6
 Russia3rd7th6th3rd1st2nd1st2nd3rd1st2nd7th-2nd4th-2nd-4th-7th3rd2ndQ19
 Serbia------------------3rd11th3rd7th8thQ5
 South Korea5th5th5th6th3rd6th6th5th7th-6th11th9th9th--12th-9th14th-8th--17
 Thailand---------8th9th10th12th11th-11th8th10th6th4th13th11th9thQ13
 Turkey---------------7th---3rd8th4th11thQ5
 United States7th6th1st5th8th8th-6th1st6th3rd3rd8th7th8th4th9th1st1st1st6th6th1stQ22

See also

References

External links

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