Beach Volleyball And The Beijing Olympics

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even though it has a history dating back to 1930. In 1986 the, Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) held its first ever world championships in Rio de Janeiro (FIVB website). It is believed that Juan Antonio Samaranch who was then the President of the International Olympic Committee was persuaded to add it to the Olympic roster after he was invited to a Beach volleyball tournament that was held in Brazil with around 12000 fans attending the tournament. it became a demo sport at the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992 before becoming a full medal status game in Atlanta 1996(Judd Ron, 2004). It made an instant impact at the Atlanta Olympics as it did not disappoint the spectators and it also became one of the most popular sports even though it was played on an artificial beach that was far from the oceans (Landler Mark, 2000). In Sydney 2000 the aim was to maintain and consolidate beach volleyball’s status as one of the most entertaining events on the Olympic Games’ calendar. It was hosted on a natural beach to give the players and spectators a true feeling of beach volleyball as it was held at the Bondi Beach amid much hype and grumbling by the locals who saw this as an invasion of their territory and disturbing their peace (Landler Mark, 2000). The focus of modern day sporting disciplines is now on trying to market the sport so that the sport can appeal to a greater market thereby drawing a lot of spectators and sponsors. In Athens 2004, in order to get the crowds to turn up to the stadiums, FIVB embarked on a marketing strategy that was tailor made and aimed at combining sporting athleticism and entertainment to the spectators in order to improve the attendance to the stadiums and also to make it more exciting for the spectators as they were encouraged to get involved through cheering their teams and also singing and dancing to their favorite songs

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