Two-time Olympian Xia Xinyi is expected to be the big star and one of the home favorites shining in a strong women’s lineup in Xiamen. She highlights the list of high-caliber female athletes set to grace the courts on Yefengzhai Beach. The Chinese player competed at both Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024. She made her international debut with her current partner Yan Xu at the Adelaide 2025 FIVB World Championships in November, and now they are about to embark on their fourth Challenge campaign this season, after topping the podium at the previous event in Nayarit.
36-year-old Japanese veteran Miki Ishii, who also tested the Olympic sand in both Tokyo and Paris, will hit the Xiamen sand with partner Mayu Kikuchi, starting from Wednesday’s qualifications and looking to make it three in three in 2026 after medaling at both their previous Beach Pro Tour events this year, both in China, but at the Futures level.
Paris 2024 Olympians Monika Paulikiene & Aine Raupelyte of Lithuania will try to at least match the second-place result they achieved at the Tlaxcala Challenge, the best ever of their beach volleyball journey, as they star at the Xiamen Challenge this week.
The list of Olympic pairs to compete in China also includes France’s Lezana Placette & Alexia Richard, who will launch their 2026 Beach Pro Tour campaign in Xiamen. So will another Paris 2024 Olympian – Czechia’s Marie-Sara Stochlova – appearing with her current teammate Marketa Svozilova.
The main draw pre-seeding on entry points is headed by Puerto Rican standouts Maria Gonzalez & Allanis Navas, who completely dominated the NORCECA Tour last season and will now try to focus on finding Beach Pro Tour success. They already have the first world-level medal under their belt, the Veracruz Challenge bronze they earned in October.
The Xiamen Challenge tournament will be conducted with a 32-team main draw in each gender. It starts on Wednesday with the qualification rounds with eight teams progressing to the main draw and joining the 24 directly seeded. The main draw begins on Thursday with modified pool play, with eight pools of four teams each, playing two pool semifinals, a losers’ match and a winners’ match to determine the final standings. The teams that finish third in the pools will take on the runners-up of other pools in the sixteenthfinal single elimination round, the winners of which will move to the eighthfinal round, where they will challenge the eight pool winners. Quarterfinals, semifinals and medal matches will follow to determine the final standings.
Women’s action in Xiamen is about to get underway with Wednesday’s qualification tournament, serving off at 09:00 local time (01:00 UTC).
