Beach Volleyball’s Grand Stage Moves from Paris to Adelaide
Organisers of the Adelaide 2025 Beach Volleyball World Championships, the standout event on next year’s international volleyball calendar, are looking to emulate the colour and vibrancy experienced in Paris, Vienna and Gstaad.
The world’s attention has been transfixed on the eye-catching beach volleyball competition at Paris 2024, where the Eiffel Tower Stadium provided a breathtaking backdrop for the sport.
The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) celebrated the iconic Paris venue stating, “Magical, Marvelous, Magnifique: Eiffel Tower Lights Up Beach Volleyball Venue on Olympic Nights.” They continued, “Every night, the lights dim at the Eiffel Tower Stadium, and France’s most iconic landmark lights the night sky.”
The unique venue has had journalists from around the globe in awe: “a setting unlike anything else in the sport” (The Washington Post); the “most beautiful Olympic venue” (NBC); and, the “best venue in the history of the Games” (Associated Press).
There is little doubt the colour of the beach volleyball at the Paris Games will live long in the memories of not only the hundreds of thousands of fans who passed through the Stadium’s gates, but by the billions more watching worldwide. It is an experience that will continue to inspire the athletes and organisers leading into Adelaide 2025.
“There is genuine excitement amongst the Olympic athletes and global beach volleyball community in Paris that the next host city will be Adelaide,” said Jenny Mann, CEO Adelaide 2025. “Australia is world- renowned for delivering outstanding international sports events, and with the next major FIVB event in Adelaide, players are already making their post-Olympic plans to head down under.”
Three-times Australian Olympic beach volleyballer and Tokyo 2020 silver medallist, Mariafe Artacho del Solar has just returned home to Brisbane after a massive few weeks of competition in Paris. She enthused “After experiencing the games in Paris, I’m really motivated to shortly begin preparation for the World’s next year on home soil”.
This will be a once in a lifetime tournament with Australian players being on the FIVB’s biggest stage at home for the first time, as the championships makes its first historic appearance in the southern hemisphere.
In recent weeks, Mann joined members of the Adelaide 2025 organising committee on an observer program at two of the Beach Pro Tour’s most successful Elite 16 events in Gstaad and Vienna, followed by the Olympic Games in Paris.
Now that the flame has gone out in Paris, eyes which were transfixed on the Eiffel Tower Stadium will pivot to Adelaide with the city poised to deliver an unforgettable Beach Volleyball World Championships.
“This event promises to showcase Australia to the world,” said Mann. “Fans and participants from around the globe will head to Adelaide’s stunning shores and experience the thrill and energy of beach volleyball on the biggest stage, and we cannot wait to welcome them.
