A little more than a month has passed since the end of the volleyball Olympic tournament. The CEV Champions League Volley is about to set off in a few days and most national championships have already begun. So, the timing is perfect to look back at probably the most successful Olympic tournament in history.
First and foremost, the South Paris Arena, as one of the largest and visually astounding volleyball venues in the world, averaged 20,737 spectators per match. In 52 games altogether, the total attendance amounted to a little bit more than 1,078,000 fans, which is an all-time record. The previous highest attendance was 1,068 million, set in Atlanta in the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Also, the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) organized various attractive events with the aim of popularizing volleyball during the Olympics. The most notable event was the Volleyball Experiences, which offered fans to participate in multiple activities, from serve simulators to interactive games with current and former volleyball stars. Thousands of volleyball fans and visitors observing different Olympic sports took part in these activities, which proved that all those initiatives weren’t in vain.
In terms of the winners in women’s and men’s tournaments, there weren’t any big surprises. Before the first serve in the women’s tournament, Italy had the best odds at several bookies (200+), followed by Brazil (+300), and the USA (+500). In the final match, Italy defeated the USA, while the Brazilians took the third place on the podium, having lost only one set against Turkey.
The men’s tournament had a different outcome. The host side France won the gold medal, having defeated Poland in the finals. The USA came third, after a win over Italy in a dynamic bronze-medal match. The odds by the registration-required and no-verification betting sites alike were similar to the final order: Poland (+400), Italy (+500), France (+600), and the USA (+700). It’s no surprise that Poland took the silver medal, but the winning side was a tiny bit of a surprise.
The MVP of the men’s tournament was Earvin Ngapeth, who won the second MVP title in the Olympics in a row, in his third participation at the Olympic Games. Ngapeth scored 92 points altogether in this tournament, leading his national team straight to the gold medal. There was only one significant bump on this road to their success: the quarter-final match against Germany. France won 3:2 after a long and exciting match, ending the fifth set at 15:13, with Ngapeth scoring 21 points, the tournament-highest achievement.
The Italians dominated the women’s tournament, having lost only one set in a total of six matches they played in the Olympic tournament. This was the first-ever Olympic gold medal for Italy’s women’s national team. Finally, the MVP was also a member of the Italian squad: Pola Egonu, who scored a jaw-dropping 110 points in those six games, with an impressive 22 points scored in the final match against the USA.
The Olympic volleyball tournament is behind us, but the new cycle has just begun: we’re looking forward to the club and national team competitions all the way to the LA Summer Olympics in 2028.
