While women’s Paris 2024 Olympic champions Italy and men’s silver medallists Poland kept their top spots in the respective FIVB Volleyball World Rankings, the men’s gold medallists France climbed back up to the number two position for the first time in almost two years. Men’s Olympic bronze medallists USA also gained ground and returned to the top three in the chart. So did their female compatriots, who earned silver in the French capital last week.
Volleyball Olympic Games Paris 2024
Olympic champs France rise up to number two in World Ranking
Italy’s women and Poland’s men keep top positions
Published 08:14, 14 Aug 2024
France’s Trevor Clevenot rejoices after the Paris 2024 final
Major reshuffle in men’s top six
The matches played in the men’s Olympic volleyball tournament caused quite a lot of movement in the World Ranking, especially among the top six teams.
Despite emerging from the competition with a 4-2 win-loss record and the silver medals, the world’s number one team Poland suffered a net loss of 21.30 points. Their loss to France in the final cost them 16.29 points and the setback against Italy in the pool stage amounted to 13.97 points, damages that the victories over Egypt (0.90), Brazil (0.01, Slovenia (5.88) and United States (2.17) could not compensate. However, the team from central Europe kept their number one position, standing 23.24 points clear of the new number two France.
Olympic silver for Poland in Paris
During the Olympics, hosts France lost only one game, to Slovenia in five sets, and that cost them 6.25 points. By winning the other five matches of their campaign, they net-gained 34.07 points, with their victories in the semifinal against Italy (14.30) and in the final against Poland (16.29) contributing most significantly to their climb. Before the Games, France were fourth in the World Ranking, but now they are back up to number two on a total of 378.07 points. The last time they were this high in the chart was back in the summer of 2022, when they won the Volleyball Nations League for the first time.
The top three in the World Ranking has another returning member. USA net-gained 39.98 points during their Olympic campaign, which led them to a Paris 2024 bronze, and leapt three positions up the chart, to number three on a total of 365.87 points. The Americans dropped out of the top three in June this year, during VNL 2024.
USA celebrate their Paris 2024 bronze
Despite losing to Poland in the Paris 2024 quarterfinals, Slovenia piled up enough points during the pool stage to end up one spot higher in the World Ranking than they were before the Olympics. They rose from number five to number four on a score of 352.50 points.
Meanwhile, Japan, who were the world’s number two team before the Games, and number three Italy are now down to number six and number five, respectively. Brazil also suffered a net loss of points, but kept their seventh place. Germany and Canada switched their spots among the top 10. The European team rose from number 11 to number eight, while the North Americans dropped from number nine to number 11. Argentina descended one spot to number nine, while Serbia stayed put in number 10. The remaining team that participated in the Olympics, Egypt, lost some ground falling to number 20 and yielding the number 19 position to Bulgaria.
Italy widen gap at the top, USA return to top three
It was a bit less shaky on the women’s side, with only one change in the top three of the World Ranking.
Italy, the team that has occupied the number one position since the VNL 2024 Finals, which they won, also won the Olympic gold in Paris, dropping only a set along the way. They gained a total of 38.85 new points and more than doubled the gap to second-ranked Brazil. The southern Europeans lead the way on a new total of 437.03 points, or 29.94 clear of the South Americans. On the way to their Paris 2024 bronze, Brazil netted 21.60 points to stay in second place.
Italy triumph as Olympic champions
USA claimed the Olympic silver and their campaign in the French capital improved their World Ranking score by 13.17 points. The Americans ascended two spots from number five to number three on a total of 362.27 points.
Among the other Olympic participants, China and Canada also gained ground. The Asian squad climbed one spot to number five, while the North Americans jumped two positions up to number eight. Number seven Japan, number 11 Dominican Republic and number 19 France kept their positions. Türkiye dropped from third to fourth, while Poland descended from fourth to sixth. The Netherlands and Serbia moved down by a spot each to number nine and number 10, respectively. So did Kenya, who fell to number 21, with Bulgaria again taking advantage of that to slide up into number 20.
