Beach Volleyball

Australia's Louise Bawden (L) and Becharra Palmer on the FIVB World Tour - Photo FIVB

Qualification Process

Olympians Natalie Cook, Tamsin Hinchley, Louise Bawden and Josh Slack will form the nucleus of an eight-strong Australian team that will be vying for qualification into the 2012 Olympics.

Australia’s leading women’s pairings Becchara Palmer and Sydney Olympian Bawden and four-time Olympian Cook and her duel Olympian partner Hinchley will be joined by men’s teams, triple Olympic representative Slack, his partner Chris McHugh and Sam Boehm and Isaac Kapa as they compete in the varying stage of Olympic qualification.

There are several ways in which Australia can qualify for the Beach Volleyball event, either directly through being in the Top 16 on the FIVB World Rankings, through the FIVB Beach Volleyball Continential Cup or lastly through the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Cup Olympic Qualification. 

Qualification Process

Read more on how the teams can qualify

FIVB World Rankings
To be eligible for the 2012 Olympic Games from the World ranking, athletes must have participated in at least 12 events as a team in the FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Championships, the FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour and recognised Continental Tour Finals within the Olympic qualification period from January 1, 2011 to June 17, 2012.

Currently Bawden/Palmer are sitting in 15th place on the Olympic Qualification Ranking (as at Nov 7th 2011), which gives them a Top 16 berth, but with 6 more women's events on the 2012 FIVB World Tour, they will need to have more good finishes to keep them up there.

The Mens and Womens Olympic Rankings can be found on the FIVB website or linked below.

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Continental Cup
The Olympic qualifying process for the 2008 Olympic Games drew 60 countries but now, with the introduction of the innovative Beach Volleyball Continental Cup, more countries than ever before will have the chance to taste what it is like to participate in the qualifying process.  A record-breaking total of 142 countries across 62 tournaments have been confirmed to participate in the Continental Beach Volleyball Cup.

The Continental Cup is a country versus country Olympic qualifying event for continents staged from June 25, 2010 to July 1, 2012 and disputed at continental levels (subzone, zone, final). The five winners of the Beach Volleyball Continental  Cup – one from each Continent - will qualify for the Olympics.

Australia competed in the Sub-zonal tournament (Stage 1) in March 2011 in Saipan, winning through to the next stage being held in New Zealand in February 2012.  The Australian teams will have to do battle against Fiji, New Zealand & Vanautu, and claim a top 3 placing to progress to the next round, the Continental Cup Final (June 18-24 2012). The Zonal Phase tournament (Stage 2) from the 16-19 February can be followed on the FIVB website - AVC Continental Cup

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Beach Volleyball World Cup
To be eligible to qualify through the Beach Volleyball Continental Cup and/or FIVB Beach Volleyball World Cup, and/or Olympic Trials, athletes must have participated as an individual in at least 12 Continental Beach Volleyball Cup, National and/or Continental and/or FIVB events scheduled from June 1, 2010 until June 24, 2012.

 

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