William G. Morgan, a YMCA physical education director and a student at Springfield College, is credited with creating the game of volleyball in 1895 in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
Mintonette (as volleyball was called at the time) was designed to be an indoor pastime that could be enjoyed by older members of the YMCA, and took some of its characteristics from other sports including tennis and handball.
Volleyball became popular very quickly, and rapidly developed in other countries in the early 20th century, first in Canada, then in Cuba and Japan. The first rulebooks for the sport were produced in the early 1900s, with the first international federation (Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB)) following in 1947. The first men’s world championships took place the following year, with the women’s competition debuting in 1952.
Brief overview of the rules
Volleyball is played by two teams of six players on an indoor court 18m long and 9m wide. Matches are played to the best of five sets. A point is scored when the ball lands within the court boundaries or when a playing error is made. The first team to score 25 points by a two-point margin wins the set, with each match following a best-of-five sets format. If required, a fifth set is played to 15 points (a winning margin of two points is still required).
In a game of volleyball, the ball can reach speeds of up to 130km/h, particularly following a spectacular jump serve or smash. Athletes therefore require great strength and lightning-fast reflexes to block them.
Olympic history
Volleyball made its Olympic debut at the Tokyo 1964 Games. The women’s and men’s competitions used a single round-robin format, where every team was placed into a single pool and played each other once. This system remained in place until the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich; the format was switched to a pool round and final round of quarter‑finals, semi-finals and a final to determine the medal winners.
Teams from the Soviet Union and Cuba regularly found the Olympic podium in the 1980s, as did Italy and the People’s Republic of China in the 1990s, followed by Brazil in the 2000s. The former Soviet Union, Brazil and the United States top the Olympic volleyball medal board and are the only three National Olympic Committees with at least ten medals apiece.
