Switzerland will play host to the double-gender FIVB Swatch Beach Volleyball Gstaad Major, known as the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.
The tournament (just finished) was the 15th straight year for a men’s competition in Gstaad and 16th consecutive year that a women’s event was held here.
The FIVB Gstaad Major was the third of three events that are part of the new Swatch FIVB Major Series.
The Swatch FIVB Major Series offered a cash prize of $800,000 and the other two events in the series were held in Croatia (Porec, June 2 to 7) and Norway (Stavanger, June 9 to 14).
The new sponsor partnership, the Swatch FIVB Beach Volleyball season final will be held in Fort Lauderdale September 29 to October 4.
This first-time event features the top eight teams along with two wildcards for both Men’s and Women’s from the FIVB World Tour 2015.
They will compete for a total purse of $500,000 with each winning (Men and Women) tandems receiving $100,000.
Switzerland has hosted 29 FIVB World Tour events (14 men, 15 women) all held in Gstaad, but Brazil leads the medal count in both Men and Women.
After 14 events, the Men for Brazil has 19 medals, followed by USA (8), Germany (6), Switzerland (3), and Argentina, Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia and Spain each with one.
After 15 FIVB World Tour women’s events held in Switzerland through 2014, Brazil leads the medal department with 18, followed by the USA with 11, China with 8, German with 3 and one women’s medal each are Australia, Czech Republic, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Phil Dalhausser/Sean Rosenthal of the US were the men’s championship team of the 2014 FIVB Gstaad Grand Slam.
Germany’s Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmeler won last year’s women’s gold medal in Gstaad.
The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour 2015 calendar will include five FIVB Grand Slams, a new FIVB Swatch Beach Volleyball Major Series of three events, six FIVB Opens and a special FIVB Swatch Beach Volleyball Season Final in the United States.
The showcase event was the $1 million FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships The Netherlands 2015.
A total of 14 countries will host events this year as the FIVB World Tour 2015 also begins the Olympic qualification process with all FIVB World Tour events.
This does not include the World Tour Finals in 2015 up until June 13, 2016 counting towards the Olympic Ranking.
This will determine the 15 vacancies for each gender that will take part in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
The 2015 FIVB World Ranking system will again include FIVB Beach Volleyball Grand Slam and Open events along with additional pre-approved events at the inter-continental, continental and national levels.
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