Women
The opening edition of the volleyball Olympic tournament, in 1964, was won by Japan, the host nation. There followed two victories in a row by the Soviet Union, in 1968 and 1972. Japan came back again in 1976 for one last Olympic gold before losing the status of volleyball superpower.
The American-led boycott of the 1980 Games left many strong volleyball nations like Japan and South Korea out of the games. As a result, the USSR easily secured a third Olympic gold medal.
In 1984, the Eastern bloc was, in its turn, boycotting the games, and once more many strong volleyball nations like the USSR, East Germany and Cuba did not participate. In spite of this, and much to the distress of local fans, host nation USA lost the finals in straight sets to a communist nation, China. With eastern and western nations again involved in the Olympics, the USSR obtained a remarkable victory over Peru after trailing 0-2 in 1988's finals. This was the most dramatic female match according to the official FIVB's first century tape. However, the 1988 games were marred by the boycott of Cuba.
1992 saw a new force go down in Olympic history: organized under the name Unified Team, the remnants of former Soviet Union went as far as the finals, but did not resist the power play of the young, rising Cuban squad. Led by superstars Mireya Luis and Regla Torres, Cuba would eventually set the record for consecutive wins in the Olympic Games by also taking the gold in 1996 and 2000.
In 2004, the winner was once again China. Second was Russia who beat Brazil in a very tough semifinal match.
In 2008, Brazil finally won the gold, beating the United States, a result that would repeat itself four years later. China won the bronze in 2008 and, in 2012, the bronze medal was awarded to Japan.
The twelve editions of the Volleyball Olympic Tournament were won by only five different countries: Brazil, Soviet Union, Cuba, China and Japan.
Read more about this topic: Volleyball At The Summer Olympics, History
Famous quotes containing the word women:
“We women are not made for governing and if we are good women, we must dislike these masculine occupations; but there are times which force one to take interest in them mal gré bon gré, and I do, of course, intensely.”
—Victoria (1819–1901)
“It seems as though women keep growing. Eventually they can have little or nothing in common with the men they chose long ago.”
—Eugenie Clark (b. 1922)
“The particular source of frustration of women observing their own self-study and measuring their worth as women by the distance they kept from men necessitated that a distance be kept, and so what vindicated them also poured fuel on the furnace of their rage. One delight presumed another dissatisfaction, but their hatefulness confessed to their own lack of power to please. They hated men because they needed husbands, and they loathed the men they chased away for going.”
—Alexander Theroux (b. 1940)