FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour has happy home in Gstaad

With the current most consecutive years on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour calendar, Switzerland will this year host the double-gender FIVB Swatch Beach Volleyball Gstaad Major. The tournament, to be held from July 7 to 12, will mark the 15th straight year for a men’s competition in Gstaad and 16th consecutive year that a women’s event will be held in this peaceful village.

This year’s FIVB Gstaad Major will be third of three events that are part of the new Swatch FIVB Major Series. With each of the Swatch FIVB Major Series offering a purse of $800,000, the other two events in the series will be in Croatia (Porec, June 2 to 7) and in Norway (Stavanger, June 9 to 14).

As part of the new sponsor partnership, the Swatch FIVB Beach Volleyball Season Final will be held in the United States (Fort Lauderdale, September 29 to October 4). This first-time event will feature the top eight teams and two wildcards for each gender from the FIVB World Tour 2015. This illustrious group will compete for a total purse of $500,000 with the winning men and women’s tandems receiving $100,000 each.

Through the 2014 season, Switzerland has hosted a total of 29 FIVB World Tour events (14 men, 15 women) with all of them being held in Gstaad. Brazil leads the medal count in both genders. In the men’s totals after 14 events, Brazil has 19 medals, followed by USA with eight, Germany with six, Switzerland three, and with one men’s medal each are Argentina, Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia and Spain.

After 15 FIVB World Tour women’s events held in Switzerland through 2014, Brazil leads the medal parade with 18, followed by the USA with 11, China with eight, German with three and with one women’s medal each are Australia, Czech Republic, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

The men’s championship team of the 2014 FIVB Gstaad Grand Slam was USA’s Phil Dalhausser/Sean Rosenthal. Winning last year’s women’s gold medal in Gstaad was Germany’s Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmeler.

The 2007 event in Gstaad was the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships.

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 FIVB World Tour 2015 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.

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 high society and international jet setters. 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.