Beach Volleyball World Champs Off to Strong Start

(ATR) FIVB executive vice president Ary Graca tells Around the Rings the beach volleyball world championships underway in Rome is the sport's best event ever.

"The main thing is the atmosphere. People are happy. There are families here," said Graca, also president of the Brazilian Volleyball Confederation.

"I used to say while traveling the world and in Brazil that our sport is not like soccer where they have a lot of problems and people are always fighting. Volleyball and beach volleyball are the sport of the family."

Play began in the Italian capital on Monday with medal matches to be contested Sunday.

The 2012 Olympic qualification event is being held at the Parco del Foro Italico tennis complex in the shadow of Rome’s Stadio Olimpico, site of the 1960 opening and closing ceremonies. A total of96 men’s and women’s teams from 34 countries are competing for $1 million in prize money.

It’s the eighth time the FIVB has staged a world championship in beach volleyball but the first in Italy, a country with a strong tradition in the sport.

"This event indeed is the best that we’ve ever had," Graca told ATR.

"As a Brazilian, I used to say the biggest event was in 1993 in Rio de Janeiro. That event took beach volleyball to the Olympics because [former IOC president Juan Antonio] Samaranch came and was so amazed with the game that in 1996 we were for the first time on the program of the Olympic Games."

Angelo Squeo serves as beach volleyball event director for the FIVB and has been involved in the organization of all major tournaments dating back to the 1996 Atlanta Games.

"The preparation started two years ago with the first event here, and it has been challenging for us, but we want to bring the beach to downtown areas in big cities," said Squeo, a former member of the Italian national volleyball team. "We like to have ideas in line with what the young generation wishes.

"We also like that there was a lot of experience with CONI and FIPAV organizing other events here with Diamond League track and field, swimming world championships and Champions League soccer," he said in reference to the Italian National Olympic Committee and national volleyball federation.

Along with Swatch, who has served as title sponsor of the FIVB world championships since 2003, the German micro-car brand Smart also recently came onboard as a presenting sponsor.

"In the past we had some problems of image with our sponsors, but we don’t have them anymore," Graca said.

"In our sport, we need idols, heroes and emotion and that is why I am changing most of the rules. The rules in the past were made by the Americans because we only had Americans and Brazilians playing beach volleyball professionally, but now we have many nations and more than 150 countries trying to qualify for a place at the Olympics Games, so everyone is playing beach volleyball."

Top Teams in Rome

In the men’s draw, reigning Olympic champions Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser of the U.S. are the top seed but have struggled of late and lost their opening match Monday. Dalhousser has been playing with a sprained left ankle.

Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann of Germany are the defending world champions and seeded fourth. Brazil’s Emanuel Rego and Alison Cerutti arrive in Rome having won their last two tournaments in Prague and Beijing.

And in the women’s draw, April Ross and Jennifer Kessy of the U.S. look to defend their world title from 2009 in Stavanger, Norway. The pair also won last year’s Grand Slam event here in Rome.

"We like it here and getting to play in front of this crazy crowd in Rome is a dream come true," said Kessy. "For us, we’re not looking at it with the added pressure of defending a title, we’re just looking at it as going out and trying to win another tournament."

Brazilian teams are seeded first and second in the women’s bracket. Two-time Olympic champions Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor of the U.S. enter the tournament seeded fifth, fresh off a victory last weekend in China.

The round of 32 single eliminations begin Thursday for the women and Friday for the men. Winning teams will share a prize of $60,000.

Written in Rome by Brian Pinelli.