The FIVB Volleyball Women's World Cup is an international

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of ' (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. Initially the tournament was played in the year following the Olympic Games, but since

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

the World Cup has been awarded in the year preceding the Olympic Games. The current champion is

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, which won its fifth title at the 2019 tournament. The historical format of the competition involves 12 teams, including the automatically qualifying host nation

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, competing in the tournament phase for the title at venues within the host nation over a period of about two weeks. The World Cup (with exception of the 2019 edition) acts as the first qualification event for the following year's

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

with the top two teams qualifying. The 14 World Cup tournaments have been won by six different national teams.

have won five times. The other World Cup winners are

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

, with four titles;

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, with two titles;

and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

(as

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

) with one title each. This tournament should not be confused with the

FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship The FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championship is an international volleyball competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of ' (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. The initial gap between championships was var ...

History

Origins

The World Cup was created in 1965 with the purpose of partially filling the gap between the two most important volleyball tournaments, the

and the

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

, which take place in alternating 4-year cycles. The establishment of a third international competition would leave only one in every four years with no major events. The World Cup has a smaller entry than the World Championship, with at most 12 teams. The World Cup was to be held in the year following the Olympic Games. The first two tournaments were for men's volleyball only; in 1973, a women's tournament was also introduced. Originally, each tournament had a different host, but in 1977 the competition was transferred to

on a permanent basis. In the 1990s, the installment of annual international events such as the World League and the

Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural ''Grands Prix'') most commonly refers to: * Grand Prix motor racing, a form of motorsport competition ** List of Formula One Grands Prix, an auto-racing championship *** Monaco Grand Prix, the most prestigious ...

made the original motivations for the creation of the World Cup obsolete. Instead of letting a consolidated event disappear for lack of interest, the FIVB decided to change its format in 1991: it would be held in the year preceding, and not following, the Olympic Games; and it would be considered a first international Olympic qualification tournament, granting the winner a direct berth in the games. This move saved the competition. The possibility of securing an early berth for the Olympic Games, thus avoiding extraneous and in some cases tight continental qualification procedures, became a consistent motivation for the national federations to participate in the World Cup. In 1995, the number of Olympic spots granted at the competition was increased to three, as it remained until 2011. In 2015 the number of spots was only two again.

2023 edition

With the change of qualification for the Paris Summer Olympics, the 2023 World Cup will serve as one of the three Olympic qualification tournaments. Only eight teams will participate in this edition, with two tickets to the Paris Olympics for the top two teams.

Winners

The Women's World Cup has had not one great winner, like its counterpart for men's volleyball, but two:

and

. The first edition of the tournament was won by the

, the runner-up of 1973, took the gold in 1977. With the help of superstar player

Lang Ping "Jenny" Lang Ping (; born 10 December 1960) is a Chinese former volleyball player and coach. She is the former head coach of the Chinese women's national volleyball team and U.S. women's national volleyball team. As a player, Lang won the mos ...

, China won the following two editions, in 1981 and 1985. Then Cuba stepped forward to begin its amazing World Cup career, winning its first title in 1989. With the tournament now as an Olympic qualifier, there followed three more consecutive victories, in 1991, 1995 and 1999. China came back in 2003 with a remarkably offensive team to win its third title.

won the 2007 edition with an outstanding record of eleven wins in eleven games and only two sets left to the opponents (both lost against

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). Italy took a second win in a row in 2011, getting the better hand on United States and China. In 2015, China regained the title and then successfully defended it in 2019.

Competition formula

The World Cup is the most stable from all competition formulas employed by the FIVB. The following rules apply: *The competition takes place in Japan. *Twelve teams participate in each event: ten qualified, two per invitation. **

are always pre-qualified as host nation. **The winners of the FIVB World Championship in the previous year are automatically granted a spot. **The champion and runner-up of each continental tournament of that year are granted two spots. **Since the 1999 edition, only teams not yet qualified for the following Olympic Games can compete in the World Cup; hence hosts of the following year's Olympic Games are not allowed to compete. There was an exception for the 2019 World Cup, as the tournament will be hosted by Japan and the country will host the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

. *The competition is divided in exactly two phases (called "legs"). **Teams are divided in two pools. ***At the first leg, each team plays one match against all other teams in its pool. **At the second leg, each team plays one match against all the teams in the other pool. **Matches take place continuously through two weeks, with one-day breaks every two or three days. Each day, six matches are played. **Final standings are calculated by usual volleyball criteria: match points, numbers of matches won, sets ratio (the total number of sets won divided by the total number of sets lost), points ratio, direct confrontation. *The top two teams in overall standings, regardless of pools, qualify for the following

. *The tournament implements very tight line-up restrictions: only twelve players are allowed, and no replacement is permitted, even in the case of injuries.

Results summary

Medals summary

Debut of national teams

Participating nations

;Legend * – Champions * – Runners-up * – Third place * – Fourth place * – Did not enter / Did not qualify * – Hosts *= – More than one team tied for that rank *Q – Qualified for forthcoming tournament

Most valuable player by edition

1973 Events January * January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 14 - The 16-0 19 ...

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1977 Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (no ...

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1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 6 – A funeral service is held in West Germany for Nazi Grand Admiral ...

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1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

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1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

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1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

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1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

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2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

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2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

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2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

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2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

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2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

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Notes

References

External links

FIVB
{{Main world cups Recurring sporting events established in 1973 International volleyball competitions International women's volleyball competitions Quadrennial sporting events World cups Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2023