FIVB Beach Volleyball Grand Slam heading to St. Petersburg, USA for first time

After a decade away from the United States the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour calendar in 2015 returns for the third straight year, and this time for three events. The first US event will be in Florida for the double-gender FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour St. Petersburg Grand Slam from June 17 to 21. The tournament will be the 12th FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event held in the United States and the first one to be hosted in St. Peterburg.

With the first USA visit being held in Miami, Florida in 1994, the 1997 event was the inaugural FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, held in the Tennis Center stadium at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA). The other two stops in the United States in 2015 will be the FIVB St. Petersburg Grand Slam in Florida (from August 18 to 23) and the season-ending Swatch FIVB Season Final in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (from September 29 to October 4).

This year’s FIVB St. Petersburg Grand Slam will be second of five double-gender FIVB Grand Slams, each with a total purse of $800,000 each, on the FIVB World Tour 2015. A pair of teams from the USA won the men’s and women’s gold medal in last year’s only US stop in Long Beach, Calif. Winning men’s gold was the duo of Phil Dalhausser/Sean Rosenthal while topping the women’s podium on their home sand was the duo of Kerri Walsh Jennings/April Ross.

St. Petersburg is one of 10 US cities that have hosted an international FIVB beach volleyball event. Others have been Atlanta, Carson, Calif., Chicago, Clearwater, Fla., Hermosa Beach, Calif., Long Beach, Calif., Los Angeles, Miami and New York. The event in Atlanta was the 1996 Olympic Games, the first at which beach volleyball was a medal sport.

Including the 2014 event, the United States has hosted a total of 22 FIVB World Tour events (11 men, 11 women) with Brazil leading the medal count in both genders.  In the men’s totals after 11 events in USA, Brazil has 11 medals, followed by the United States with 10, Argentina, Norway and Switzerland with two each and with one men’s medal each are Canada, Italy, Poland and Spain.

After 11 FIVB World Tour women’s events held in the United States through 2014, Brazil leads the medal parade with 15 medals followed by USA with 13, Australia with three and with one women’s medal each are Germany and the Slovak Republic.

The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 2015 calendar will include five FIVB Grand Slams, a new FIVB Swatch Beach Volleyball Major Series of three events, six FIVB Opens and a special FIVB Swatch Beach Volleyball Season Final in the United States.

The showcase event will be the $1 million FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships The Netherlands 2015.

A total of 14 countries will host events this year as the 2015 FIVB World Tour also begins the Olympic qualification process with all FIVB World Tour events (except the World Tour Finals) in 2015 up until June 13, 2016 counting towards the Olympic Ranking in order to determine the 15 vacancies for each gender that will take part in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

The 2015 FIVB World Ranking system will again 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 World Continental Cup also returns this year as it starts its portion of the qualification process for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in Brazil.

St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas Country, Florida, United States. As of the 2013 census estimate, the population was 249,688, making St. Petersburg the fifth most populous city in the state of Florida. St. Petersburg is the second largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, composed of roughly 2.8 million residents. It is also a popular vacation destination for both American and foreign tourists.

The city is often referred to by locals as St. Pete. Neighboring St. Pete Beach formally shortened its name in 1994 after a vote by its residents. The city is located on a peninsula between Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.