Beach volleyball
A game played on a sand court divided by a net, in which two teams on opposite sides of the net throw a ball over it with the aim of landing it on the opponent's side and preventing it from dropping on their own side of the court.
Each team has 2 players. There are no substitutions. The winning team is the one that wins 2 sets out of 3. The first 2 sets are played to at least 21 points, and the third, deciding set is played to 15 points. A team wins a set if it leads the opponent by 2 or more points. A point is awarded after each rally. The team that won the previous rally serves the ball. The ball may touch the net on a serve. After a team touches the ball 3 times, it must go over to the opponent's side. A single player is not allowed to touch the ball twice in a row, except in the case of a block. In beach volleyball, unlike indoor volleyball, a block is considered a touch of the ball.
The playing field size is 8×16 meters. Players switch sides after every 7 serves in the first two sets, and after every 5 serves in the third set. The maximum allowed pause between rallies is 12 seconds. Each team is entitled to one 30-second timeout per set. In the first two sets, there is a 30-second technical break after every 21st serve. The break between sets is 60 seconds. The ball cannot be held or thrown by hand. Players are not allowed to touch the net with their body. Net height: 2.24 meters for women's teams, 2.43 meters for men's teams.
The duration of the game is on average 40 minutes. Beach volleyball requires special athleticism and endurance; moreover, beach volleyball players must be versatile – in this sport, players are rarely specialized in specific roles.
Interesting
In one hour of game time, a beach volleyball player performs an average of 85 jumps, 234 sprints, and runs an average of 772 meters at maximum speed (meaning he jumps every 42 seconds and starts running every 15.4 seconds, covering an average of 3.3 meters per sprint). For comparison, in regular volleyball, a player jumps every 51 seconds and sprints every 19 seconds.
Olympic Games
Beach volleyball was included in the Olympic Games program for the first time in 1996. The first Olympic champions were volleyball players from the USA. The team included C. Kiraly, the 1984 Olympic volleyball champion. Most often, the winners and medalists of the Olympic Games are representatives of the USA and Brazil.
Russia
The most famous Russian beach volleyball pairs are Dmitry Barsuk and Igor Kolodinsky (silver medalists at the 2007 World Championship and participants in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing). At the Olympic Games, Russia was also represented by Sergey Ermishin and Mikhail Kushneryov (9th place in Sydney 2000). Russian female beach volleyball players Natalya Uryadova and Alexandra Shiryaeva were the 2006 European champions and participants in the 2008 Games in Beijing. Three European Championship golds in 2008 were won by young Russian athletes Maria Bratkova and Evgenia Ukolova. Two-time Olympic champions are Americans Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor.
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