FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix

The FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix was an annual women's volleyball competition created in 1993. The men's version of the competition was called World League. This event should not be confused with the other international volleyball competitions, the World Championship, the World Cup and the World Grand Champions Cup.

FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix
SportVolleyball
Founded1993
Ceased2017
Replaced byNations League
Challenger Cup
No. of teams12 in Group 1
12 in Group 2
8 in Group 3
ContinentInternational (FIVB)
Last
champion(s)
 Brazil (12th title)
Most titles Brazil (12 titles)

From 2018, the World Grand Prix was replaced by the FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League and Challenger Cup.[1][2]

History

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Origins

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Old FIVB World Grand Prix logo

World Grand Prix was created in 1993 as part of the FIVB's marketing strategy to promote the sport of volleyball by establishing annual international competitions. It was modelled after the World League, a successful event for men that had been introduced three years before.

The Grand Prix made women's volleyball very popular in East Asia. As of 2004, the competition was maintained mainly with the support of Asian investors. The early competitions and the finals were usually held in East Asia, because the volleyball market in East Asia is large and has a large audience (such as Hong Kong). Later, some competitions were held in Europe and the United States, for example, the 2003 finals was held for the first time in Italy, and 2015 finals was held in the United States.

The budget for prize money grew steadily since 1993, but at a rather slow pace. The figures have reached $1.295 million in 2004 - meager when compared to the World League's $13 million.

Although the status of the Grand Prix was less than the other three international competitions, the prize money and popularity was far better. Because it is purely commercial competition, the winner of the Grand Prix championship is generally not considered a world champion. But the Grand Prix has created stars for female volleyball players, and thus contributed to the promotion of the sport of female volleyball in the world.

The predominance of Asian sponsors determined the first major break with the World League's formula. Most of the cities that host preliminary round matches are located in Asia. A host country may or may not have a national volleyball team involved in the competition. A second break was introduced in later years: in some continents, teams must qualify to participate in the competition.

Winners

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The history of Grand Prix's previous winners is a clear indication of how women's volleyball has been dominated, since the early 1990s, by four teams: Cuba, Brazil, Russia and China. Along with five-times winner USA, they are the only ones to hold a title at this competition as of 2005.

In 1993, the Cubans padded their already impressive record of a gold medal in the 1992 Olympic Games by winning the first edition of the Grand Prix. They were also running for the gold in 1994, but were defeated by an underranked Brazil: at that time, the Brazilians had never been able to catch a single medal in any major women's volleyball competition.

In the following years, Brazil proved beyond any doubt that their time as underdogs was over. It lost the finals in 1995 to USA, but came back in 1996 for a second Grand Prix title, winning all the matches that made up the Final Four round in five sets.

The Brazilians withdrew from the competition in 1997, and the winners were Russia. But they were back in 1998 for another gold. Russia took revenge in 1999, and defeated Brazil in straight sets to win their second Grand Prix title.

Russia's win in 2002 made them, like Brazil, three-time winners. But the South Americans untied the score by conquering the 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009, and, afterwards, also 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017 editions of the tournament. The winners in 2000, 2001 and 2003 were Cuba, USA and China, respectively. Netherlands won their first trophy in 2007. USA won four gold medals in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2015.

Competition formula

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The Grand Prix's competition formula has proved less stable than the World League's. In the following years, major changes are likely to be introduced in an attempt to make women's volleyball more attractive to the audience. Some of the rules that are still in practice as of 2004 are:

  • The Grand Prix has qualification procedures. They are not the same in every continent: teams may have to play a specific qualification tournament, or may qualify based on the FIVB World Rankings.
  • The competition is divided in at least two phases: a preliminary round, with a system of rotating host cities; and one or more final rounds, with one or more host nations.
  • The preliminary round is divided in weeks. Each week, the participating teams are organized in pools, and each team plays one match against all other teams in its pool.
  • All games in a pool take place over a weekend in the same city. The cities are mostly located in Asia. Pools may be hosted in countries which are not actually involved in the competition.
  • When all matches of the preliminary round have been played, the top n teams (overall standings) qualify for the final 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, but it is usually five or six.
  • If involved in the competition, host nation(s) automatically qualify for the final round(s).
  • The 2013 Gran Prix has seen a record number of 20 teams taking part in the competition. The first 5 plus organisers Japan qualify to the finals.[3]
  • The FIVB has tried different formats for the final round(s). Originally, it was a round-robin "Top Four" system in which four teams played against each other and the winner was determined by number of wins, set average, point average, direct confrontation. For some years now (2004), the most commonly used is a mixed format: quarter-finalists are organized in two pools, and the top two teams in each pool play semi-finals and finals according to the Olympic format.
  • In the preliminary round, a team is usually given the right to work with a list of eighteen players, from which the coach builds the twelve-player line-up that will be employed in a particular weekend. For the final round(s), only twelve players are allowed.

Hosts

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List of hosts by number of final round championships hosted.

Times hosted Hosts Year(s)
8   China 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2017
6   Japan 1997, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2014
3   Hong Kong 1993, 1998, 2002
3   Italy 2003, 2004, 2006
2   Macau 2001, 2011
1   Philippines 2000
1   United States 2015
1   Thailand 2016

Appearance

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China and Japan are the only teams that participated in all editions of the World Grand Prix.

Team Intercontinental Round Final Round[N 1]
App. First Last App. First Last
  China 25 1993 2017 24 1993 2017
  Japan 25 1993 2017 13 1993 2015
  Brazil 24 1993 2017 23 1993 2017
  United States 24 1993 2017 12 1995 2017
  Cuba 22 1993 2016 13 1993 2012
  Russia 21 1993 2017 16 1993 2016
  Italy 19 1994 2017 12 1999 2017
  South Korea 18 1993 2017 4 1993 2003
  Germany 18 1993 2017 4 2001 2009
  Thailand 15 2002 2017 3 2011 2016
  Netherlands 14 1994 2017 6 2003 2017
  Poland 14 2004 2017 2 2007 2010
  Dominican Republic 14 2004 2017
  Kazakhstan 8 2007 2017
  Puerto Rico 8 2009 2017
  Serbia 7 2011 2017 3 2011 2017
  Turkey 7 2008 2017 2 2012 2014
  Argentina 7 2011 2017
  Peru 6 1994 2017
  Canada 5 2003 2017
  Algeria 5 2013 2017
  Bulgaria 5 2013 2017
  Czech Republic 5 2013 2017
  Belgium 4 2014 2017 1 2014 2014
  Chinese Taipei 4 1994 2012
  Australia 4 2014 2017
  Croatia 4 2014 2017
  Mexico 4 2014 2017
  Kenya 3 2014 2016
  Colombia 3 2015 2017
  Azerbaijan 1 2006 2006
  Cameroon 1 2017 2017
  France 1 2017 2017
  Hungary 1 2017 2017
  Trinidad and Tobago 1 2017 2017
  Venezuela 1 2017 2017
  Team last allocated in Group 1
  Team last allocated in Group 2
  Team last allocated in Group 3
  Team was inactive in the last World Grand Prix

Results summary

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Year Finals hosts Final 3rd place match Teams
IR / FR
Champions Score Runners-up 3rd place Score 4th place
1993  
Hong Kong
 
Cuba
3–0  
China
 
Russia
3–1  
Brazil
8 / 6
1994  
Shanghai
 
Brazil
Round-robin  
Cuba
 
China
Round-robin  
Japan
12 / 4
1995  
Shanghai
 
United States
Round-robin  
Brazil
 
Cuba
Round-robin  
China
8 / 4
1996  
Shanghai
 
Brazil
Round-robin  
Cuba
 
Russia
Round-robin  
China
8 / 4
1997  
Kobe
 
Russia
Round-robin  
Cuba
 
South Korea
Round-robin  
Japan
8 / 4
1998  
Hong Kong
 
Brazil
3–0  
Russia
 
Cuba
3–1  
China
8 / 4
1999  
Yuxi
 
Russia
3–0  
Brazil
 
China
3–1  
Italy
8 / 4
2000  
Quezon City
 
Cuba
3–1  
Russia
 
Brazil
3–1  
China
8 / 4
2001  
Macau
 
United States
3–1  
China
 
Russia
3–0  
Cuba
8 / 8
2002  
Hong Kong
 
Russia
3–1  
China
 
Germany
3–1  
Brazil
8 / 4
2003  
Andria
 
China
Round-robin  
Russia
 
United States
Round-robin  
Netherlands
12 / 6
2004  
Reggio Calabria
 
Brazil
3–1  
Italy
 
United States
3–0  
Cuba
12 / 6
2005  
Sendai
 
Brazil
Round-robin  
Italy
 
China
Round-robin  
Cuba
12 / 6
2006  
Reggio Calabria
 
Brazil
3–1  
Russia
 
Italy
3–2  
Cuba
12 / 6
2007  
Ningbo
 
Netherlands
Round-robin  
China
 
Italy
Round-robin  
Russia
12 / 6
2008  
Yokohama
 
Brazil
Round-robin  
Cuba
 
Italy
Round-robin  
United States
12 / 6
2009  
Tokyo
 
Brazil
Round-robin  
Russia
 
Germany
Round-robin  
Netherlands
12 / 6
2010  
Ningbo
 
United States
Round-robin  
Brazil
 
Italy
Round-robin  
China
12 / 6
2011  
Macau
 
United States
3–0  
Brazil
 
Serbia
3–0  
Russia
16 / 8
2012  
Ningbo
 
United States
Round-robin  
Brazil
 
Turkey
Round-robin  
Thailand
16 / 6
2013  
Sapporo
 
Brazil
Round-robin  
China
 
Serbia
Round-robin  
Japan
20 / 6
2014  
Tokyo
 
Brazil
Round-robin  
Japan
 
Russia
Round-robin  
Turkey
28 / 6
2015  
Omaha
 
United States
Round-robin  
Russia
 
Brazil
Round-robin  
China
28 / 6
2016  
Bangkok
 
Brazil
3–2  
United States
 
Netherlands
3–2  
Russia
28 / 6
2017  
Nanjing
 
Brazil
3–2  
Italy
 
Serbia
3–1  
China
32 / 6

Medals summary

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RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1  Brazil125219
2  United States6129
3  Russia36413
4  Cuba2428
5  China1539
6  Netherlands1012
7  Italy0347
8  Japan0101
9  Serbia0033
10  Germany0022
11  South Korea0011
  Turkey0011
Totals (12 entries)25252575

Most valuable player by edition

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Since Group system was introduced in 2014, statistics of only Group 1 Final Round are included, as this is the medal round.

References

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  1. ^ FIVB drastically changes format for 2018 World League and Grand Prix - World of Volley, 19 June 2017
  2. ^ FIVB announces the Volleyball Nations League
  3. ^ "Volley Gran Prix 2013 al via: formula e calendario Italia". 3 August 2013.
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