FIVB Beach Volleyball Grand Slam has happy home in Gstaad

Switzerland will once again host the extremely popular double-gender FIVB Gstaad Grand Slam. The Gstaad event, to be held from July 8 to 13, will mark the 14th straight year for a men’s competition in Switzerland and 15th consecutive year that a women’s tournament will be held in this country.

A total of 27 previous FIVB World Tour events have been staged in the Swiss village of Gstaad, including 13 straight men’s events and 14 consecutive women’s events.

The 2007 event in Gstaad was the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships where the gold medals were won by a pair of teams from the United States. Capturing men’s gold in Gstaad was USA’s Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers, who would go on to win gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and winning women’s gold was USA’s incomparable Misty May-Treanor/Kerri Walsh Jennings, who won women’s Olympic gold in 2004 (Athens), 2008 (Beijing) and 2012 (London).

This year’s FIVB Gstaad Grand Slam will be fifth Grand Slam of the 2014 season and the fourth in a string of seven FIVB Grand Slams to be held over an eight-week window. The seven consecutive FIVB Grand Slam events start in Moscow, Russia (June 11 to 15) and ends in Klagenfurt, Austria (July 29 to August 3).

Through the 2013 event, Switzerland has hosted a total of 27 FIVB World Tour events (13 men, 14 women) with all of them being held in Gstaad with Brazil leading the medal count in both genders.  In the men’s totals, Brazil has 17, followed by USA with seven, Germany with six, Switzerland three, and with one men’s medal each are Argentina, Australia, Italy, Netherlands, Russia and Spain.

After 14 FIVB World Tour women’s events held in Switzerland, Brazil leads the medal parade with 18 total medals followed by the USA with 11, China with eight, with one each women’s medals in Gstaad are Australia, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Switzerland.

At the 2013 FIVB Gstaad Grand Slam, Brazil’s unique new team of rookie Alvaro Filho and legendary veteran Ricardo Santos took the gold medal in the men's competition. Winning last year’s women’s gold medal in Gstaad was China’s two-time Olympians Chen Xue/Xi Zhang.

Gstaad is a picturesque village in the German-speaking section of the Canton of Bern in southwestern Switzerland in the shadow of the majestic Swiss Alps. It is part of the municipality of Saanen and is known as a major ski resort and a popular destination amongst the high society and the international jet set. Gstaad has a permanent population of about 3,200 and is located 1,050 metres (3,445 feet) above sea level, making it the highest altitude venue for a FIVB World Tour event.

The 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour will include 10 double-gender FIVB Grand Slam tournaments along with the inaugural FIVB Grand Slam and eleven FIVB Beach Volleyball Open events.

This year's FIVB World Ranking system will include FIVB Beach Volleyball Grand Slam and Open events along with additional pre-approved events at the inter-continental, continental and national levels.

Implemented in 2013, the format of all the FIVB Beach Volleyball international tournaments – whether FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, FIVB Beach Volleyball Grand Slam or FIVB Beach Volleyball Open – are the same, featuring pool play followed by single elimination knockout rounds.

The 2014-2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball Continental Cup also returns this year as it starts its portion of the qualification process for the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games.