The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour (known between 2003 and 2012 as the FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour for sponsorship reasons) was the worldwide professional
beach volleyball tour for both men and women organized by the ' (
FIVB), the sport's global governing body. The World Tour was introduced 1989 for men and in 1992 for women being held yearly since then until 2021.
Several tournaments were staged throughout the year. All athletes who competed in the qualifying and main draws of the tournaments earned points in the
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Rankings, and after the last stage the pair that accumulated the most points during the year was declared the champion of the World Tour (only points from 75% of the tournaments in the season were considered for the ranking). Winning the World Tour was considered to be one of the highest honours in international beach volleyball, being surpassed only by the
World Championships, and the
Beach Volleyball tournament at the Summer Olympic Games. The Tour was historically dominated by Brazilian teams.
History
The international professional tour was originally known as the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Series, and began in 1989 for men and 1992 for women. It was rebranded as the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour in 1997.
The World Tour was previously accompanied by FIVB Challenger and Satellite events, which served as a developmental circuit for up-and-coming players. The FIVB handed over the organizing of Challenger and Satellite events to the continental confederations in 2009.
Tournaments in the World Tour were previously categorized as either Grand Slams, Majors or Opens. This was replaced by the star rating structure in 2017.
FIVB established the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour in October 2021 to replace the World Tour, starting with the inaugural
2022 edition.
Tournament categories
The star ranking tournament structure was introduced in
2017. World Tour tournaments were ranked from 1 to 5 stars, with 5-star tournaments offering the most prize money. The
2018 World Tour had 47 international tournaments with a total prize purse of over US$7 million.
Competing in the World Tour as well as other FIVB-recognized tournaments such as the
Summer Olympics
The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The ina ...
allowed players to earn
FIVB Ranking Points, with higher-star events being worth more points.
[ The World Tour concluded with the World Tour Finals at the end of each season.][
]
History
Champions
FIVB World Tour Finals
The Tour Finals were the season-ending championships of the FIVB World Tour and featured only the top performing teams during the regular season. The tournament was first held in 2015.
Men's Results
Women's Results
Award winners
Men's FIVB World Tour award winners
Women's FIVB World Tour award winners
Sponsorship
* Swatch
* Red Bull
* Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
References
Sources
Awards
Beach Volleyball Database
2007Women's Post-season Awards
at FIVB.org
2007Men's Post-season Awards
at FIVB.org
External links
Official site
{{International sports tours
Beach volleyball competitions
Sports competition series
Multi-national professional sports leagues