Rome to host 2022 World Championships in June

This summer, the world’s top women’s and men’s beach volleyball pairs will go head-to-head in Rome for a chance to be crowned world champions at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships 2022 from June 10-19. The event is organised as a joint venture between Volleyball World and Sport e Salute.

The Italian capital of Rome knows exactly what it takes to host a festival of beach volleyball. The city’s famous Foro Italico previously hosted the Beach Volleyball World Championships in 2011.

More recently, the same venue welcomed thousands of fans for a spectacular FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Finals in 2019, but this time the central court of the Foro Italico (with a capacity of 10,500 spectators) will be the main court of the World Championships.

While qualification is still underway for the World Championships, this season will see the return of many of the strongest pairs from last year. This includes Norway’s Beachvolley Vikings Anders Mol and Christian Sorum, who topped off a dominant two years on the men’s beach volleyball circuit with gold at both the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Finals 2021.

Meanwhile, Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan of Qatar, who claimed bronze at Tokyo 2020, will no doubt be vying for their country’s first-ever podium finish at a Beach Volleyball World Championships.

On the women’s side, reigning world champions Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes of Canada finished the 2021 season in strong form with a silver medal at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Finals in Sardinia. And the 2022 season will also see the return of Switzerland’s Tanja Huberli and Nina Betschart who enjoyed their first Olympic Games last year in Tokyo. The pair made it to the semifinals of the 2019 World Championships, but will certainly be aiming to go a step further this year.

The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships are held every two years and bring together the very best beach volleyball players, battling it out in pursuit of the world title. The previous edition of the event was held in Hamburg, Germany in 2019. The 10-day competition welcomed over 130,000 spectators, and was enjoyed by over 158 million viewers worldwide.