FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships

For the most current Championships, see 2023 Beach Volleyball World Championships.

The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships is the double-gender world championship for the sport of beach volleyball organized by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) the sport's global governing body. The first official edition of the event was held in Los Angeles, United States in 1997 and tournaments had been awarded every two years since then. Before 1997, ten unofficial championships not organized by the FIVB were all held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil between 1987 and 1996. The most recent World Championships took place in Mexico in 2023.

FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships

Upcoming season or competition: 2025 Beach Volleyball World Championships
Sport	Beach volleyball
Founded	1997; 28 years ago (1997)
No. of teams	48
Continent	International (FIVB)
Most recent champion(s)	Czech Republic (men)  United States (women)
Most titles	Brazil (men; 7 titles)  Brazil (women; 6 titles)

Winning the World Championships is considered to be one of the highest honours in international beach volleyball, surpassing the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour and being surpassed only by the beach volleyball tournament at the Summer Olympic Games.

Format

The tournament has a 48-team main draw per gender and consists of two stages: the group stage followed by the knockout stage. The prize pool for each gender is US$500,000.^[1]

Editions

First Beach Volleyball World Championships were held from 10 to 13 September 1997 in Los Angeles, California (United States). It was the first official edition of this event, after 10 unofficial championships between 1987 and 1996.

Edition	Year	Host City	Host Country	Events
1987–1996: 10 Unofficial World Championships before recognized by FIVB
1	1997	Los Angeles	United States	2
2	1999	Marseille	France	2
3	2001	Klagenfurt - Maria Wörth - Velden	Austria	2
4	2003	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	2
5	2005	Berlin	Germany	2
6	2007	Gstaad	Switzerland	2
7	2009	Stavanger	Norway	2
8	2011	Rome	Italy	2
9	2013	Stare Jabłonki	Poland	2
10	2015	The Hague - Amsterdam - Apeldoorn - Rotterdam	Netherlands	2
11	2017	Vienna	Austria	2
12	2019	Hamburg	Germany	2
13	2022	Rome	Italy	2
14	2023	Tlaxcala - Apizaco - Huamantla	Mexico	2
15	2025	Adelaide	Australia	2

Results summary

Men's tournament

Year	Host City		Gold medal match				Bronze medal match				Teams
			Gold Medalists	Score	Silver Medalists		Bronze Medalists	Score	4th place
1997 Details	Los Angeles		Rogério Ferreira and Guilherme Marques	2–1	Canyon Ceman and Mike Whitmarsh		Dain Blanton and Kent Steffes Paulão Moreira and Paulo Emilio Silva	was not played, both pairs who lost at semi-finals were awarded a bronze medal			48
1999 Details	Marseille		José Loiola and Emanuel Rego	1–0	Martin Laciga and Paul Laciga		Rogério Ferreira and Guilherme Marques	1–0	Javier Bosma and Fabio Díez		48
2001 Details	Austria		Mariano Baracetti and Martín Conde	2–1	José Loiola and Ricardo Santos		Vegard Høidalen and Jørre Kjemperud	2–0	Rob Heidger and Chip McCaw		48
2003 Details	Rio de Janeiro		Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos	2–0	Dax Holdren and Stein Metzger		Márcio Araújo and Benjamin Insfran	2–0 awarded (walkover)	João Brenha and Miguel Maia		48
2005 Details	Berlin		Márcio Araújo and Fábio Luiz Magalhães	2–0	Sascha Heyer and Paul Laciga		Julius Brink and Kjell Schneider	2–1	Marvin Polte and Thorsten Schön		48
2007 Details	Gstaad		Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers	2–0	Dmitri Barsuk and Igor Kolodinsky		Andrew Schacht and Joshua Slack	2–0	Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos		48
2009 Details	Stavanger		Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann	2–0	Alison Cerutti and Harley Marques Silva		Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers	2–0	David Klemperer and Eric Koreng		48
2011 Details	Rome		Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego	2–0	Márcio Araújo and Ricardo Santos		Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann	2–1	Mārtiņš Pļaviņš and Jānis Šmēdiņš		48
2013 Details	Stare Jabłonki		Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen	2–0	Álvaro Morais Filho and Ricardo Santos		Jonathan Erdmann and Kay Matysik	2–0	Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego		48
2015 Details	Netherlands		Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt	2–1	Reinder Nummerdor and Christiaan Varenhorst		Evandro Oliveira and Pedro Solberg Salgado	2–0	Theo Brunner and Nick Lucena		48
2017 Details	Vienna		Evandro Oliveira and André Stein	2–0	Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst		Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Nikita Liamin	2–0	Maarten van Garderen and Christiaan Varenhorst		48
2019 Details	Hamburg		Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Viacheslav Krasilnikov	2–1	Julius Thole and Clemens Wickler		Anders Mol and Christian Sørum	2–1	Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb		48
2022 Details	Rome		Anders Mol and Christian Sørum	2–0	Renato Carvalho and Vitor Felipe		André Stein and George Wanderley	2–1	Chaim Schalk and Theodore Brunner		48
2023 Details	Mexico		Ondřej Perušič and David Schweiner	2–1	David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig		Bartosz Łosiak and Michał Bryl	2–0	Trevor Crabb and Theodore Brunner		48

Women's tournament

Year	Host City		Gold medal match				Bronze medal match				Teams
			Gold Medalists	Score	Silver Medalists		Bronze Medalists	Score	4th place
1997 Details	Los Angeles		Sandra Pires and Jackie Silva	2–1	Lisa Arce and Holly McPeak		Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar Karolyn Kirby and Nancy Reno	was not played, both pairs who lost at semi-finals were awarded a bronze medal			48
1999 Details	Marseille		Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar	1–0	Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson Jordan		Liz Masakayan and Elaine Youngs	1–0 awarded (walkover)	Sandra Pires and Adriana Samuel		48
2001 Details	Austria		Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar	2–0	Tatiana Minello and Sandra Pires		Eva Celbová and Soňa Nováková	2–0	Barbra Fontana and Elaine Youngs		48
2003 Details	Rio de Janeiro		Misty May and Kerri Walsh	2–0	Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar		Natalie Cook and Nicole Sanderson	2–0	Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson Jordan		48
2005 Details	Berlin		Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh	2–0	Larissa França and Juliana Silva		Tian Jia and Wang Fei	2–0	Dalixia Fernández and Tamara Larrea		48
2007 Details	Gstaad		Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh	2–0	Tian Jia and Wang Jie		Larissa França and Juliana Silva	2–1	Xue Chen and Zhang Xi		48
2009 Details	Stavanger		Jennifer Kessy and April Ross	2–0	Larissa França and Juliana Silva		Maria Elisa Antonelli and Talita Antunes	2–0	Shelda Bede and Ana Paula Connelly		48
2011 Details	Rome		Larissa França and Juliana Silva	2–1	Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh		Xue Chen and Zhang Xi	2–0	Lenka Háječková and Hana Klapalová		48
2013 Details	Stare Jabłonki		Xue Chen and Zhang Xi	2–1	Karla Borger and Britta Büthe		Liliane Maestrini and Bárbara Seixas	2–0	Whitney Pavlik and April Ross		48
2015 Details	Netherlands		Ágatha Bednarczuk and Bárbara Seixas	2–0	Fernanda Alves and Taiana Lima		Maria Elisa Antonelli and Juliana Silva	2–1	Katrin Holtwick and Ilka Semmler		48
2017 Details	Vienna		Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst	2–1	April Ross and Lauren Fendrick		Larissa França and Talita Antunes	2–1	Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes		48
2019 Details	Hamburg		Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes	2–0	Alix Klineman and April Ross		Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar	2–0	Nina Betschart and Tanja Hüberli		48
2022 Details	Rome		Eduarda Santos Lisboa and Ana Patrícia Ramos	2–0	Sophie Bukovec and Brandie Wilkerson		Svenja Müller and Cinja Tillmann	2–1	Joana Heidrich and Anouk Vergé-Dépré		48
2023 Details	Mexico		Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng	2–0	Ana Patrícia Ramos and Eduarda Santos Lisboa		Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth	2–1	Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy		48

Medals

As of 2023 Beach Volleyball World Championships.

Men Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total 1  Brazil 7 5 5 17 2  United States 1 2 2 5 3  Germany 1 1 3 5 4  Russia 1 1 1 3 5  Netherlands 1 1 0 2 6  Norway 1 0 2 3 7  Argentina 1 0 0 1  Czech Republic 1 0 0 1 9  Switzerland 0 2 0 2 10  Austria 0 1 0 1  Sweden 0 1 0 1 12  Australia 0 0 1 1  Poland 0 0 1 1 Totals (13 entries) 14 14 15 43

Women Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total 1  Brazil 6 6 6 18 2  United States 5 5 3 13 3  China 1 1 2 4 4  Germany 1 1 1 3 5  Canada 1 1 0 2 6  Australia 0 0 2 2 7  Czech Republic 0 0 1 1 Totals (7 entries) 14 14 15 43

Total

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Brazil	13	11	11	35
2	United States	6	7	5	18
3	Germany	2	2	4	8
4	China	1	1	2	4
5	Russia	1	1	1	3
6	Canada	1	1	0	2
	Netherlands	1	1	0	2
8	Norway	1	0	2	3
9	Czech Republic	1	0	1	2
10	Argentina	1	0	0	1
11	Switzerland	0	2	0	2
12	Austria	0	1	0	1
	Sweden	0	1	0	1
14	Australia	0	0	3	3
15	Poland	0	0	1	1
Totals (15 entries)		28	28	30	86

See also

• Beach volleyball at the Summer Olympics
• FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour
• European Beach Volleyball Tour
• FIVB Beach Volleyball U23 World Championships
• FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championships
• FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championships
• FIVB Beach Volleyball U17 World Championships