Beach Volleyball - games

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Volleyball, like basketball, is a sport whose origin is known almost to the day. Oddly enough, both sports were invented at the same college and within a few years of one another. Volleyball was invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan, a student at Springfield College and a director of the YMCA at Holyoke, Massachusetts. The game was originally called "Mintonette".Volleyball quickly spread around the world and became more popular in other countries than in the United States. The Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) was formed in 1946. The sport was introduced to the Olympics in 1964 by the Japanese, although it was never contested as a demonstration sport at the Olympics. No country has been truly dominant in volleyball, although the Soviet Union has won the most medals. Originally the Japanese had the world's best women players while the United States had the best men's team in the world throughout the 1980s.Volleyball has now reached great heights of popularity in the United States and Brazil, largely thanks to the discipline of beach volleyball.The beach volleyball phenomenon, although hugely visible, is still just in its infancy. From the first FIVB World Tour event just over ten years ago, to the overwhelming spectator and television success of 'Beach' at the Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, beach volleyball has opened up Volleyball to a completely new market.Sydney, 23 September 2000, Games of the XXVII Olympiad. Adriana BEHAR of Brazil spikes the ball during the women's beach volleyball competition at Bondi Beach. Credit: Getty Images/Darren McNamaraBecause of the many difficulties of playing outdoors, such as the sand, the sun and the wind, beach volleyball players must have outstanding ball skills and court speed. Partners must be well matched or opponents will win easy points by exploiting the weaker player.Originally a figure skater, Adriana Behar switched to indoor volleyball when she was 16 years old and played professionally in Italy before turning to beach volleyball. In 1995 she teamed with Shelda Bede and the two soon became the leading pair in the world. They would subsequently win world championships in 1999 and 2001 and number one rankings in 2000, 2001 and 2004. They qualified for the Olympics in 2000 and made it to the final by winning four matches. They settled for silver medals when they lost in the final to local Australians Natalie Cook and Kerri Pottharst.Four years later, at the 2004 Athens Games, Adriana Behar and Shelda defeated fellow Brazilians Sandra Pires and Ana Paula in the quarterfinals and Natalie Cook and her new partner Nicole Sanderson in the semifinals, before falling 17-21, 11-21 to Americans Kerri Walsh and Misty May in the final. The pair Behar/Shelda is the first one to earn more than one medal at the Olympics.Shelda turned from indoor volleyball to beach volleyball when she was 18 years old. That same year, 1991, she was a passenger in a car that was hit by a drunk driver. She endured muscle damage and the nerve in her right hand was severed. A doctor told her that she would have to give up volleyball. Instead, after an operation, she learned to hit with her left hand, and she returned to the beach. She and her partner, Adriana Behar, soon dominated the sport, eventually earning twice as much money on the world tour than any other women's team.They won the world championship in 1999 and entered the 2000 Olympics as the favourites. They won their first four matches and then, in the final at Bondi Beach, faced Australians Natalie Cook and Kerri Pottharst, whom they had beaten 14 of the 17 times they had played. Although Shelda and Adriana Behar led in both sets, they lost 11-12, 10-12.They rebounded to win the world championship again in 2001. At the 2004 Athens Olympics, they swept through their first six matches, including a quarterfinal victory over 1996 Olympic champion Sandra Pires and her partner Ana Paula and a semifinal win against Natalie Cook and her new partner Nicole Sanderson. Shelda and Adriana Behar were beaten in the final 17-21, 11-21 by Americans Kerri Walsh and Misty May, however they became the first beach volleyball pair to earn medals in two Olympics.