Origins edit

The World Cup was created in 1965 with the purpose of partially filling the gap between the two most important volleyball tournaments, the Olympic Games and the World Championship, which take place in alternating 4-year cycles. The establishment of a third international competition would leave only one in every four years with no major events. The World Cup has a smaller entry than the World Championship, with at most 12 teams.

The World Cup was to be held in the year following the Olympic Games. The first two tournaments were for men's volleyball only; in 1973, a women's tournament was also introduced. Originally, each tournament had a different host, but in 1977 the competition was transferred to Japan on a permanent basis.

In the 1990s, the installment of annual international events such as the World League and the Grand Prix made the original motivations for the creation of the World Cup obsolete. Instead of letting a consolidated event disappear for lack of interest, the FIVB decided to change its format in 1991: it would be held in the year preceding, and not following, the Olympic Games; and it would be considered a first international Olympic qualification tournament, granting the winner a direct berth in the games.

This move saved the competition. The possibility of securing an early berth for the Olympic Games, thus avoiding extraneous and in some cases tight continental qualification procedures, became a consistent motivation for the national federations to participate in the World Cup. In 1995, the number of Olympic spots granted at the competition was increased to three, as it remained until 2011. In 2015 the number of spots was only two again.

2023 edition edit

With the change of qualification for the Paris Summer Olympics, the 2023 World Cup will serve as one of the three Olympic qualification tournaments. Only eight teams will participate in this edition, with two tickets to the Paris Olympics for the top two teams.^[1]

Winners edit

The Women's World Cup has had not one great winner, like its counterpart for men's volleyball, but two: China and Cuba.

The first edition of the tournament was won by the Soviet Union. Japan, the runner-up of 1973, took the gold in 1977. With the help of superstar player Lang Ping, China won the following two editions, in 1981 and 1985.

Then Cuba stepped forward to begin its amazing World Cup career, winning its first title in 1989. With the tournament now as an Olympic qualifier, there followed three more consecutive victories, in 1991, 1995 and 1999.

China came back in 2003 with a remarkably offensive team to win its third title.

Italy won the 2007 edition with an outstanding record of eleven wins in eleven games and only two sets left to the opponents (both lost against Serbia). Italy took a second win in a row in 2011, getting the better hand on United States and China. In 2015, China regained the title and then successfully defended it in 2019.

The World Cup is the most stable from all competition formulas employed by the FIVB. The following rules apply:

• The competition takes place in Japan.
• Twelve teams participate in each event: ten qualified, two per invitation.
  • Japan are always pre-qualified as host nation.
  • The winners of the FIVB World Championship in the previous year are automatically granted a spot.
  • The champion and runner-up of each continental tournament of that year are granted two spots.
  • Since the 1999 edition, only teams not yet qualified for the following Olympic Games can compete in the World Cup; hence hosts of the following year's Olympic Games are not allowed to compete. There was an exception for the 2019 World Cup, as the tournament will be hosted by Japan and the country will host the 2020 Summer Olympics.
• The competition is divided in exactly two phases (called "legs").
  • Teams are divided in two pools.
    • At the first leg, each team plays one match against all other teams in its pool.
  • At the second leg, each team plays one match against all the teams in the other pool.
  • Matches take place continuously through two weeks, with one-day breaks every two or three days. Each day, six matches are played.
  • Final standings are calculated by usual volleyball criteria: match points, numbers of matches won, sets ratio (the total number of sets won divided by the total number of sets lost), points ratio, direct confrontation.
• The top two teams in overall standings, regardless of pools, qualify for the following Olympic Games.
• The tournament implements very tight line-up restrictions: only twelve players are allowed, and no replacement is permitted, even in the case of injuries.

Legend

• 1st – Champions
• 2nd – Runners-up
• 3rd – Third place
• 4th – Fourth place
•  •  – Did not enter / Did not qualify
•    – Hosts
• = – More than one team tied for that rank
• Q – Qualified for forthcoming tournament

• 1973 –   Jo Hea-jung (KOR)^[3]
• 1977 –   Takako Shirai (JPN)
• 1981 –   Sun Jinfang (CHN)
• 1985 –   Lang Ping (CHN)
• 1989 –   Mireya Luis (CUB)
• 1991 –   Caren Kemner (USA)
• 1995 –   Mireya Luis (CUB)
• 1999 –   Taismary Agüero (CUB)
• 2003 –   Małgorzata Glinka (POL)
• 2007 –   Simona Gioli (ITA)
• 2011 –   Carolina Costagrande (ITA)
• 2015 –   Zhu Ting (CHN)
• 2019 –   Zhu Ting (CHN)
• 2023 -   Melissa Vargas (TUR)

• Volleyball at the Summer Olympics
• FIVB Volleyball Men's World Cup
• FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship
• FIVB Volleyball World Grand Champions Cup
• FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix
• FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League
• List of Indoor Volleyball World Medalists

• FIVB