In exactly one year, the best beach volleyball teams on the planet will all be in Mexico for the opening day of the 2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, ending a 20-year wait for the tournament to return to Latin America.

Set to take place across the cities of Tlaxcala, Huamantla and Apizaco, from October 6-15, the 14th edition of the tournament will be the first to be hosted outside Europe since 2003, when Rio de Janeiro, Brazil hosted the event. It will be the first time Mexico welcomes the World Championships.

An exciting emerging market in beach volleyball, Mexico has set the stage for international beach volleyball events since 1999. It has hosted as many as 14 events, most notably the first two events in the inaugural season of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, the Tlaxcala Challenge and the Rosarito Elite16, earlier this year.

Held over the course of ten days, the World Championships, which also follow successful events in Chetumal and Cancun in recent years, will feature as many as 48 teams per gender.

Aside from the coveted title of world champion, the 2023 World Championships will offer an additional reward to the men’s and women’s winners as they will both earn their countries a spot at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Norway’s Anders Mol/Christian Sorum and Brazil’s Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa/Ana Patricia Ramos were the winners of this year’s World Championships, which were held in Rome, Italy, in June, and will hope to defend their titles next year in Mexico.

The Beach Volley Vikings, who won the Beach Pro Tour Elite16 event in Paris last Sunday, certainly have a positive track record in Mexico. In three tournaments played in the country, they won two golds in Cancun during the 2021 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, and bronze this year in Rosarito. The Brazilian women, who took bronze in Paris, finished fifth in Rosarito in their only appearance in Mexico as partners.