Year in review: 12 teams book Paris 2024 spots in Olympic qualifiers

Three FIVB Road to Paris Volleyball Qualifier tournaments per gender were held in September and October of this year, each awarding two tickets to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, to the winners and the runners-up. So Olympic hosts France were joined by the women’s national teams of Dominican Republic, Türkiye, United States, Serbia, Brazil and Poland and the men’s national teams of Germany, United States, Poland, Brazil, Japan and Canada as participants in next year’s volleyball competition at the Games.

The remaining five participants per gender will emerge at the end of the Volleyball Nations League 2024 Preliminary Phase on the basis of the FIVB Volleyball World Ranking.

• Watch FIVB Road to Paris Volleyball Qualifier replays on VBTV.

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The women’s team of the Dominican Republic suffered an upset at the hands of Czechia in their first match of the Pool A tournament in Ningbo, China, but then went on a six-game winning streak, including upsets of reigning world champions Serbia and mighty China to top the final pool standings and qualify for the Olympics for the fourth time. It will be the first time the Caribbean Queens compete at two consecutive editions of the Summer Olympic Games.

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Serbia lost to China in the last game of Pool A, but still finished second and qualified for the Olympics for the fifth (consecutive and overall) time, leaving the host team out of this first bunch of qualifiers.

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After winning VNL 2023 and EuroVolley 2023, each for the first time in history, the women’s team of Türkiye rounded off a perfect season with an impeccable run of seven victories in a row at the Pool B tournament in Tokyo, Japan. They qualified for the Olympics for the third time in history, after London 2012 and Tokyo 2020.

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The second ticket to Paris from Pool B was issued in the very last match of the tournament in a winner-takes-all duel between Brazil and hosts Japan. The Asians came back from a set down twice in that game before the South Americans could win the tie-breaker and qualify for their 12^th (consecutive and overall) Olympics.

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Defending Olympic champions USA and tournament hosts Poland booked their Paris 2024 tickets from the women’s Pool C in Lodz after finishing on a 6-1 win-loss record and 18 points each, separated on set ratio with the Americans topping the final table. It will be the 11^th consecutive and 13^th overall Olympic appearance for them, while the Polish ladies will take part in the Games only for the fourth time in history.

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Poland’s Generation O star Magdalena Stysiak was the best scorer of the women’s qualifiers with a total of 156 points to her name.

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Germany created the biggest surprise of the men’s qualifiers by winning all seven of their Pool A matches in Rio de Janeiro, including upsets of world champions Italy and mighty hosts Brazil. The Germans were led by 38-year-old star opposite Gyorgy Grozer, who came back from national team retirement to power the squad on the way to their fifth Olympics.

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Brazil finished Pool A runners-up to make sure they continue their uninterrupted presence in Olympic men’s volleyball for the 16^th appearance in a row since the very first edition at Tokyo 1964, while reigning world champions Italy took a disappointing fourth place in the pool and failed to qualify for Paris with this first wave of successful candidates.

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USA went through Pool B in Tokyo undefeated to top the pool standings and qualify for their 11^th consecutive and 13^th overall Olympics.

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After a shaky start, including an upset at the hands of Egypt, hosts Japan picked up speed and eventually shut out Slovenia in what proved to be the deciding match for the second place in Pool B. The Japanese team will compete at the Olympics for the 10^th time.

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VNL 2023 winners and 2023 European champions Poland won as many as three tie-breakers to stay unbeaten in the Pool C qualifier in Xi’an, China and claim a ticket to their sixth consecutive and 11^th overall Olympics, wrapping up a perfectly successful season.

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Belgium were a set away from qualifying for the Olympics for the first time since their 1968 debut. In their last Pool C match, they needed to beat Bulgaria and had a 2-1 lead, but were outplayed by a narrow 15-13 in the tie-breaker to let Canada through to the second place in the pool and their third consecutive and sixth overall Olympic appearance. Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medallists Argentina finished third in the pool and also failed to qualify directly to the Games in Paris.

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Ferre Reggers’ star was born at the Olympic qualifier in China. The 20-year-old Belgian opposite topped the best scorers’ chart of the men’s qualifications with a total of 146 points, 14 clear of second-ranked Gyorgy Grozer.

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The Olympic qualification process for Paris 2024 does not include continental qualification tournaments as previous editions did. Instead, the remaining five tickets will be handed based on the FIVB Volleyball World Rankings at the end of the VNL 2024 Preliminary Phase, ensuring that each continental confederation will be represented by at least one team per gender in the French capital.

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If the cut-off were today, according to the current women’s World Ranking, the teams of China, Kenya, Italy, Japan and the Netherlands would claim the five Olympic vacancies, and according to the current men’s World Ranking, it would be Egypt, Italy, Argentina, Slovenia and Serbia to also qualify for Paris.

FIVB Road to Paris Volleyball Qualifiers: all results

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