The FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship is an international

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of ' (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. The initial gap between championships was variable, but since

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

they have been awarded every four years. The current champions are the

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

, which won their second title at the 2022 tournament in Netherlands and Poland. The current format of the competition involves a qualification phase, which currently takes place over the preceding three years, to determine which teams qualify for the tournament phase, which is often called the ''World Championship Finals''. 24 teams, including the automatically qualifying host nation(s), compete in the tournament phase for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over a period of about a month. The 19 World Championship tournaments have been won by eight different national teams.

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

have won five times. The other World Championship winners are Japan and

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

, with three titles each; China,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

and

, with two titles each; and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, with one title each. The 2022 World Championship was co-hosted by Netherlands and Poland. On 15 October 2022, FIVB announced the expansion of the World Championships and the changes to their common competition formula. A total of 32 teams are to compete for future editions of the tournament.

History

Origins

The history of the World Championship goes back to the beginnings of volleyball as a professional, high level sport. One of the first concrete measures taken by the FIVB after its foundation in 1947 was the establishment of an international competition involving teams from more than one continent. In 1949, the first edition of the Men's World Championship was played in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. At that point, the tournament was still restricted to Europe. Three years later, a women's version was introduced; the events were synchronized and expanded to include nations from Asia, and began to be held in 4-year cycles. By the following edition, there were also teams from South, Central and North America. Since volleyball was to be added to the Olympic Program in 1964, the 4-cycles were advanced in 2 years after the fourth edition (1960), so that the World Championship may alternate with the Summer Olympics. As of 1970, teams from Africa also took part in the competition, and the original goal of having members from all five continental confederations in the games was achieved. The number of teams involved in the games has changed significantly over the years. Following volleyball's increase in popularity, they raised steadily to over 20 in the 1970s and part of the 1980s, were then cut short to 16 in the 1990s, and finally set up in 24 after 2002. Today, the World Championship is the most comprehensive of all events organized by the FIVB, and arguably the second most important, surpassed in prestige only by the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

. Until 1974, the host nation of the tournament organized both the men's and the women's events, with the single exception of the 1966/1967 games, which took place in different years. Since 1978, this practice has been only occasionally observed, for instance, in 1998 and in the 2006 edition, which was held, as the former was, in Japan.

Winners

If the titles of the Women's World Championship are evenly distributed between European and non-Europeans national teams, the situation is quite different when nations are taken into account. Historically, four national teams dominated at the World Championships —

(formerly participated as

), Japan, China and

(except for

's single — and for many, unexpected — victory in 2002). However, at last tournaments, two national teams became triumphants for the first time —

in 2014 and

in 2018. The Soviets made a most impressive start by winning the first three editions of the tournament: 1952, 1956, 1960. They were halfway to making it four, since the following edition was to be played in Moscow. Former runners-up Japan, nevertheless, was the champions in 1962 and interrupted the winning streak, repeating the performance in 1967, when the

national team did not participate. The teams faced each other again in 1970, and this time the

beat their opponents to collect the gold. In the following edition, Japan took revenge and defeated the

in straight sets. Then something extraordinary happened: the world watched astonished as a young Cuban squad left behind the two longtime rivals and secured the first important volleyball title for a continent other than Europe or Asia. The early 1980s saw the rise of a new Asian force: led by superstar

Lang Ping "Jenny" Lang Ping (; born 10 December 1960) is a Chinese former volleyball player and the current head coach of China's women's national volleyball team. She is the former head coach of the United States women's national volleyball team. As a p ...

, China stamped their mark on the World Championship's history by winning two editions in a row (1982 and 1986). They also made it to the finals in 1990, but were overpowered by the

in their last participation at the competition.

's 1978 title finally fructified in an aggressive style of play that virtually dominated the 1990s. Led by powerplayers Regla Torres,

Mireya Luis Alejandrina Mireya Luis Hernández, often referred to as Mireya (born August 25, 1967 in Camagüey) is a retired Cuban volleyball player. Life At the age of 10 she started playing volleyball. At 16, Mireya joined the Cuban national team for t ...

and Regla Bell, the Caribbeans won the 1994 and 1998 editions of the World Championship, beating newbies as well as tradition rivals such as

and China. In spite of being appointed as favourites in 2002, China lost at the semifinals to a rising

, which would eventually win the final against

In 2006, favourites

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

couldn't stop

and lost the gold medal match in a shocking final tie-breaker. In 2010,

once again defeated

in a 5th-set tie-breaker. In 2014, the

made it to the finals after an astonishing straight-set win against the 2012 Olympic champion and 2006 and 2010 runner-up

. China, on the other hand, reached the championship after winning over hosts

in a four-set fashion. The finals saw two former World champions –

and

Karch Kiraly Charles Frederick "Karch" Kiraly () (born November 3, 1960) is an American volleyball player, coach and broadcast announcer. In the 1980s he was a central part of the United States men's national volleyball team, U.S National Team that won gold ...

– at the helm of the champion squads. United States' momentum carried them to a 3–1 victory over the young Chinese squad, earning the first ever World title for the USA women's team after finishing as bridesmaids in several editions of the World Championship, World Cup and the Olympic Games. In 2018,

achieved historical victory after defeating

in a 5th-set tie-breaker. It became greatest international success for the short history of this national team. In 2022,

retained their title after winning all 12 matches at the tournament including a 3–0 victory over

in the final match. As of 2022, 19 editions of the women's Volleyball World Championship have been played: 10 went to European teams, five to

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

n teams (three times to Japan and two times to China), and four to American teams (three times to

and once to

Competition formula

Qualification

;Previous qualification ;New qualification

Final tournament

The competition formula of the FIVB World Championship has been constantly changed to fit the different number of teams that participate in each edition. The following rules usually apply: * Twenty-four teams participate in each event. * Qualification procedures for the World Championship are long and strenuous, lasting over two years. * Host nations are always pre-qualified. * The number of spots available per confederation is determined by the FIVB: Europe has usually the highest, and Africa or South America the lowest. * To participate in the event, a team must survive a number of qualification tournaments depending on its position in the

FIVB World Rankings The FIVB Senior World Rankings is a ranking system for men's and women's national teams in volleyball. The teams of the member nations of Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), volleyball's world governing body, are ranked based on thei ...

. Low-ranked teams may have to engage in up to three tournaments to be granted a berth; high-ranked teams typically play only one. * The competition is divided in at least two phases: a preliminary round and a final round. Depending on the number of participating teams, one or more intermediary rounds may also be required. * In the preliminary round, teams are organized in pools. Each team plays one match against all other teams in its pool. * When all the matches of the preliminary round have been played, the top ''n'' teams in each pool qualify for the following round(s), and the remaining ones leave the competition. The value of ''n'' depends on the number of participating teams and the format that will be employed in the finals. * The FIVB has tried various different formats for the final round(s). For some years now (2004), there seems to be a consensus that at least semifinals and finals must be played according to the Olympic format. * Quarterfinals may consist of groups of teams playing against each other, or of direct confrontation; in the latter case additional intermediary rounds might be required to reduce the number of surviving teams to eight. * The tournament now implements a line-up of fourteen players, and four reserve players in case of injuries.

New formula

A totally new competition formula was announced by FIVB in October 2022. A total of 32 teams will compete in the World Championship. The teams will be divided into 8 groups of 4 teams for the round-robin phase with 2 best teams per group moving into the direct knockout phase: round of 16, quarterfinals, semi-finals and final.

Results summary

Medals summary

Hosts

List of hosts by number of championships hosted. :

* = co-hosts.

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...
by edition

*1952–78 – ''Not awarded'' * 1982 – *

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

– *

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

– *

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

– *

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

– * 2002 – * 2006 – * 2010 – *

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

– *

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

– *

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

–

Most successful players

Boldface denotes active volleyball players and highest medal count among all players (including these who not included in these tables) per type.

Multiple gold medalists

* Till now, Lyudmila Buldakova (Meshcheryakova) remains the only female volleyball player to have won four World Championship medals

References

External links

*
Volleyball World Championship History
{{Sports country lists V International women's volleyball competitions Women's Quadrennial sporting events