The contenders for the men’s and women’s titles of the 2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships are now revealed as the list of 96 teams (half in each gender) qualified for the event has been announced on Friday, 41 days ahead of the start of the tournament, and includes all of the biggest names of the sport.

The highlight of the 2023 international beach volleyball season, the World Championships will be held across the Mexican cities of Tlaxcala, Huamantla and Apizaco from October 6-15, taking the event back to Latin America for the first time in 20 years.

• Watch the 2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship live on VBTV.

The tournament will feature 48 teams in each gender, which qualified through three different pathways. FIVB Entry Points accumulated over the last six months earned 25 teams in each gender a spot in the event, including a minimum of two from host country Mexico.

The continental quota for the World Championships accounted for 20 berths, with CAVB (Africa), AVC (Asia), CEV (Europe) and CSV (South America) each receiving four spots to be awarded to teams from their continents. Finally, three wild cards per gender were given.

As many as 40 different countries will be represented in Mexico, including 16 from Europe, nine from the NORCECA region, six from South America, five from Asia and four from Africa. Brazil have more teams than any country with nine duos (four men’s, five women’s), followed by the United States (eight), hosts Mexico (six), Australia, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands (four each).

Five of the six teams that stepped on the podium at the 2022 World Championship in Rome will be back in the 14^th edition of the tournament trying to take medals home again. The field includes 14 past world champions and the winners of this year’s World Championships will earn their countries a berth at next year’s Paris Olympics.

That includes reigning men’s Olympic champions Anders Mol and Christian Sørum of Norway, who before winning gold in 2022 took bronze at the 2019 World Championship, in their first appearance in the tournament. The Beach Volley Vikings will try to become the first men’s team to win back-to-back editions of the tournament.

Brazil’s Vitor Felipe/Renato Lima and Andre Loyola/George Wanderley, who flanked the Norwegians at the podium last year in Italy winning silver and bronze respectively, have also qualified.

**FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship – Men’s Entry List**

The men’s field in Mexico will also include some promising World Championship rookies, most notably Sweden’s David Åhman/Jonatan Hellvig, USA’s Andy Benesh/Miles Partain and the Netherlands’ Yorick De Groot, who missed the 2022 edition due to an injury and will be competing alongside Stefan Boermans.

On the other hand, Spanish veteran Pablo Herrera is set to make his 11^th-straight appearance at the event (the seventh with longtime partner Adrián Gavira), having qualified for the first time back in 2003, while Brazilian Pedro Solberg will play among the world’s elite for the eighth time (he played in every edition since 2007, except for 2022).

The women’s field is led by defending champions and FIVB World Ranking leaders Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa and Ana Patrícia Ramos of Brazil. The two triumphed last season in Rome in just their fourth international tournament as partners and will try to defend the title and give Brazil their seventh gold medal in the event.

Part of last year’s team that claimed silver in Rome, Canadian blocker Brandie Wilkerson will be back this year, but with a new partner – she switched from Sophie Bukovec to 2019 world champion Melissa Humana-Paredes ahead of the start of the 2023 season. German bronze medalists Cinja Tillmann and Svenja Müller will also be back.

**FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship – Women’s Entry List**

One of the highlights of the women’s competition in Mexico will be the return of American Tokyo Olympic champion Alix Klineman to the sand. The 33-year-old blocker hasn’t played since the 2021 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Finals and is set to make a comeback with new partner Hailey Harward after giving birth to her first son, Theodore, in June - the two were awarded a wild card for the event.

Klineman’s compatriots Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss will be among the most anticipated rookies at this year’s edition of the World Championship alongside Brazil’s Tainá Bigi/Victoria Lopes and Spain’s Daniela Álvarez/Tania Moreno.

Among the veterans, German Laura Ludwig and Brazilian Ágatha Bednarczuk, who both first competed at the World Championship back in 2005, stand out. The 37-year-old German Olympic champion is headed to her ninth appearance (the first with Louisa Lippmann), having only missed out last year's edition in the period, while the 40-year-old Brazilian Olympic medalist received a wild card alongside partner Rebecca Cavalcanti will play for the sixth time.

The drawing of lots for the event will be held on August 30, at at 13:45 local time (19:45 UTC), and will be streamed live on the Beach Volleyball World YouTube channel.

During the first phase of the tournament, the teams will be split into 12 pools with four teams each and will play in a round-robin format. The top two teams in each pool and the best four teams that rank third in their respective pools will move directly to the Round of 32.

The remaining eight third-placed tandems will play a four-match lucky loser round to fill the last four spots in the elimination rounds. From the Round of 32 forward, the tournament continues on a single elimination format, with the Round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals and medal matches.

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