Beach Volleyball - Sun, sand and skimpy outfits

The sport of Beach Volleyball originated on the sunny beaches of Santa Monica USA in the 1920s. The sport quickly spread across the world as a popular beach pass time and today the sport can be found throughout the world. The game became a popular sport as well and today the World Cup has a huge following and is an increasingly popular sport. The sport was first introduced to the Olympics in the 1996 Atlanta games.

The game is played on a field of sand with a net across the middle of it with two players on either side. Players score points by landing the ball within each others area and is played as best out of three sets. In London the tournament will start with a preliminary group round where the 16 best teams qualifies for the knock-out part of the competition. There are two gold medals up for grabs, one for the Women's and one for the Men's competition. To win the team needs to have skill, stamina, tactics and excellent partnership. The sport has been critisized for objectifiying women by the regulation that women have to wear clothing that  isn't limited to how little it can be, but rather to how large it can be while the men play in shirts and shorts. This of course is to keep interest in the sport by having women in skimpy outfits jumping and running around.

For the Women's competition it's looking to be another battle between teams from the USA, China and Brazil. Larissa França & Juliana Felisberta (BRA) have won numerous competitions together including six out of the last seven World Cups and are the raining World Champions and are the big favourites to take home gold, but the cold weather in London might work against them as they are used to warmer climates. Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh (USA) have been the Brazilian teams biggest competitors the last couple of years and are also more than capable of winning the gold as they have done in the past two Olympic games. The outsideres are Xue Chen and Zhang Xi who currently hold the World number one ranking and won a bronze at the 2008 Beijing games. Personally I think it's long overdue for the Brazilians to get their gold medal as they are the best team in the world.

For the Men's competition has a more solid favourite in Emanuel Rego and Alison Ceruti (BRA) who are the current World Champions and won the last World Cup. They will face competition mainly from Phil Dalhauser and Todd Rodgers that are the current World number ones, but since winning the 2008 Beijing games has had a hard time winning championships.

This sport is always fun to watch and one that I like to watch both during Olympic games and otherwise. The finals i think will be very close and will show some of the best Beach Volleyball in the world.