FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships 2023 preview: Full schedule, format, top stars and how to watch the Paris 2024 Olympic Qualifier live
The tournament is returning to Latin America for the first time in two decades with the United States, Brazil and Germany fielding the biggest delegations. Find out who are the top contenders to advance to the gold medal matches to be held in Tlaxcala's iconic bullring and secure quotas for Paris 2024, and how to watch all the action live.
Beach Volleyball
The 2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships will be returning to Latin America after 20 years when action gets underway in Tlaxcala, Mexico on Friday 6 October.
Running until 15 October, the tournament will feature 48 men’s and 48 women’s teams with Olympic quotas on the line for the best-ranked pair in each gender.
A total of 216 matches will be played, featuring athletes from up to 40 countries. Four venues will be used, including historic bullrings in Tlaxcala de Xicohtencatl, and its neighbouring cities Apizaco and Huamantla.
USA has the biggest representation with seven women’s and five men's teams. Brazil and Germany have one pair less, followed by Australia, France, the Netherlands, Mexico and Italy who also field large contingents.
Five of the six medallist pairs from the 2022 edition of the competition and 14 past world champions are returning to the tournament. Norway's Anders Mol and Christian Sorum will try to become the first men's team to defend a world title, while Tokyo 2020 champion Alix Klineman is making a comeback as a tournament wildcard, four months after giving birth to her first child.
Find out all you need to know about the competition in our preview, including the top athletes to watch, format and schedule of competition, and what's at stake ahead of Paris 2024.
2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships: Competition format
The tournament is made up of a preliminary round, a single elimination round and a lucky-loser round.
In the preliminary round, 48 teams from each gender will be split into 12 pools of four teams. Every team will face all three opponents in their pool with the top two ranked teams advancing to the elimination round.
Four teams that rank third in their pools and are the best among the other third-ranked teams will also advance, while the other eight teams will be relegated to the lucky loser round. They will play four matches to decide the last four spots in the elimination round.
The single elimination round consists of the round of 32, round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and medal matches. All the medal matches will take place on the final day of competition, 15 October.
Qualifying for Paris 2024 from the 2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships
The winners of the men's and women's tournaments will each earn a quota for their National Olympic Committees (NOCs) at the 2024 Olympic Games.
As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
More information on the Olympic qualification pathway in beach volleyball is available here.
2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships: Top athletes and storylines to watch
Tokyo 2020 Olympic champions Mol and Sorum were among the six pairs who won medals at the 2022 edition of the global event, in Rome, Italy. This time, the Norwegians have even bigger goals - not only to defend their world title, but to become the first men's pair to win back-to-back titles. Tlaxcala 2023 will mark their third worlds appearance.
Their 2022 rivals - Brazil’s silver medallists Vitor Felipe/Renato Lima and bronze medallists Andre Loyola/George Wanderley - will also be in Mexico, trying to make sure that does not happen.
On the women's side, last year's gold medallists Eduarda 'Duda' Lisboa and Ana Patricia Ramos of Brazil are back, fresh off their victory at the Beach Pro Tour Elite 16 in Paris, France, earlier this month. The 2022 World Championships was their fourth international tournament as partners. The Brazilian duo have become even stronger since, and now enter the competition as world No.1. If they win, it will be Brazil's seventh world title in the women's event.
Last year's silver medallist, Brandie Wilkerson of Canada, returns with a new partner. She started competing with 2019 world champion Melissa Humana-Paredes early in 2023.
Germany's bronze medallists, Cinja Tillmann and Svenja Muller, will also try to upgrade the colour of their medals.
USA's Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss are set to make their worlds debut in 2023 and are already hailed as potential gold medallists. The pair fought a tight final against Duda and Ramos at the Beach Pro Tour on 1 October and are currently ranked second in the world.
Meanwhile, their compatriot Alix Klineman, is set to make one of the most anticipated returns in Mexico. The Tokyo 2020 champion stepped away from beach volleyball in 2021 and gave birth to her first son in June 2023. She and new partner Hailey Harward received a a wildcard for the upcoming tournament.
Other notable names at Tlaxcala 2023 include Spain's Pablo Herrera who is on track to make his 11th straight appearance, going back to his worlds debut in 2003.
Germany's Laura Ludwig and Brazil's Pedro Solberg are two more veterans worth keeping an eye on. Olympic champion Ludwig is set to make her ninth appearance, while Solberg is making his eighth appearance. Both missed the tournament last year.
World Championships: Full schedule and competition start times
The competition runs from 6 to 15 October, starting with the pool matches. All times are local (UTC -6).
Friday, 6 October
- 14:30 – Men’s pool matches
Saturday, 7 October
- 16:30 – Women’s pool matches
- 19:00 – Women’s pool matches, men’s pool matches
- 20:00 – Women’s pool matches
Sunday, 8 October
- 16:30 – Women’s pool matches, men’s pool matches
Monday, 9 October
- 16:30 – Women’s pool matches, men’s pool matches
Tuesday, 10 October
- 16:30 – Men’s pool matches
- 19:00 – Women’s pool matches
- TBD – Lucky Losers tournament
Wednesday, 11 October
- TBD – Women's Round of 32
- TBD – Men's Round of 32
Thursday, 12 October
- TBD – Women's Round of 16
- TBD – Men's Round of 16
Friday, 13 October
- TBD – Women's quarter-finals
- TBD – Men's quarter-finals
Saturday, 14 October
- TBD – Women's semi-finals
- TBD – Men's semi-finals
Sunday, 15 October
- TBD - Women’s third place match
- TBD - Women’s final
- TBD - Men’s third place match
- TBD - Men’s final
How to watch the 2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships live
Matches from the 2023 World Championships will be streamed on International Volleyball Federation's digital streaming and VOD service platform, Volleyball World TV (VBTV).
Various TV broadcasters and on-demand streaming services provided by broadcasters will also air competitions from Tlaxcala 2023. The list includes:
- ESPN in Latin America (including Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico)
- NBC in USA
- SporTV in Brazil
- CBC in Canada