Olympics 2012 Fashion Wear: Olympics 2012: Volleyball Bikinis and Swimwear

Olympic Beach Volleyball

Beach Volleyball as an Olympic discipline at an IOC meeting in Monaco, opening the door for the sport to participate in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Beach Volleyball is now one of the most popular Olympic sports thanks to professional athletes, a healthy and colourful ambience, exciting competition and entertainment, and the equal treatment of men and women.

Atlanta 1996.Atlanta 1996 was the first Olympic Beach Volleyball competition and it was a memorable start. Twenty four men's teams and 18 women's teams competed for Olympic medals on Atlanta Beach in July in a 10,000-seat stadium, with more than 107,000 spectators selling out the six-day event. Some 600 athletes representing 42 countries took part in the Olympic qualifying process.

Sydney 2000. Four years after the overwhelming success of the first Olympic experience, Beach Volleyball become even more of a hit. The top 24 men's and women's teams in the world competed on Bondi Beach in a wonderful stadium seating 10,000 spectator, with modern facilities offering a top-class event to the Olympic family of players, fans, media and sponsors.

Athens 2004. With its new 10,000-seat main stadium built in the style of a traditional Greek amphitheatre, the Beach Volleyball venue and its surroundings provided an amazingly entertaining atmosphere at the Athens Games in 2004. For the first time in an Olympic Games, an entertainment programme was implemented with the involvement of 12 dancers, DJs, multilingual announcements and production managers. More than 60 countries took part in the qualifying process, with 24 men's and women's competing in Athens.

Beijing 2008. The fourth Olympic Beach Volleyball competition at Beijing 2008 again saw 24 women's and 24 men's teams competing against each other, this time over 14 days (after six continuous days in Atlanta, 10 days in Sydney and 12 in Athens) of action-packed fun on the sand. There were a total of 108 matches, comprising 54 men's and 54 women's matches.

London 2012. Olympic Beach Volleyball in 2012 will have another spectacular setting: Horse Guards Parade, just off Whitehall in central London, will be hosting the competition.