Beach volleyball is one of the trending topics in the 2016 Rio Olympics, from the beach venue and the party environment to the new challenging system during the games, the sport is receiving a lot of attention.

The Rio de Janeiro Olympics is the event of the moment, and the beach volleyball tournaments appear to be one of the major attractions, starting with the Copacabana beach volleyball venue. Copacabana’s party environment is present during all of the Olympic volleyball matches that sometimes are played in the middle of the night with singing and cheerful fans.

The Brazilian pair defending what it would be a point for them at the Volleyball Arena in Rio de Janeiro 2016. Image Credit: Daily Mail
The Brazilian pair defending what it would be a point for them at the Volleyball Arena in Rio de Janeiro 2016. Image Credit: Daily Mail

Volleyball is one of the main sports played on Copacabana beach. Just outside of the Olympic venue hundreds of nets are displayed for anyone to play, which explains the excitement during the three days of Olympic Beach Volleyball in Rio.

Copacabana’s volleyball

Over eight games have already been played on the Copacabana Stadium where different countries faced each other in the arena. First, Italy faced Austria in the men’s tournament, showing a winning Italy in a 21-14 to 21-13 match.

Brazil’s men team, represented by player Evandro Goncalves and Pedro Salgado, won over the Canadian team in a 21-19 to 22-20 preliminary game. The USA women’s team suffered a loss in the arena against strong rival Poland. The game started strong for the American team lead by Brooke Seat and Lauren Fendrick, winning the first match.

Beach Volleyball is one of the most viewed events at previous Olympic games, however, plenty of seats remained empty on this week's main volley events. Image Credit: Daily Mail
Beach Volleyball is one of the most viewed events at previous Olympic games, however, plenty of seats remained empty on this week’s main volley events. Image Credit: Daily Mail

During the second and third set, the Poland team, represented by Kinga Kolosinska and Monika Brzostek, won over the Americans two sets to one. The team finished with flying colors over the Australia team in a 21-14 t0 21-13 match.

The American men’s team, represented by Jake Gibb and Casey Patterson, had a winning strike in the last games succeeding over Tunisia in a 21-7 to 21-13 match. The Tusinians are represented by Mohamed Naceu and Choaib Salah.

The volleyball division in charge of Rio 2016 has applied a new “challenge” method that allows players to ask for a revision over a referee’s call. When a team wants a review, they form a “C” letter with their hands and a video playback is showed during the match. The newly implanted system has received good feedback from players and the public so far.

“We want the game to be more transparent, we want the players to be happy with the decisions and want the game to reflect what happens on the field,” said Angelo Squeo, Director of the beach volleyball international federation.

Source: NBC Olympics