| | Event type

Volleyball, Men

Date	10 – 24 August 2008
Status	Olympic
Location	Beijing Ligong Daxue Tiyuguan, Beijing / Shoudu Tiyguan, Beijing
Participants	143 from 12 countries
Format	Round-robin pools advanced teams to classification matches.

In the now standard format, 12 teams competed, separated into two pools of six, followed by elimination and medal/placement matches. The qualifying teams were selected as follows: host nation (China), World Cup (Brazil, Russia, Bulgaria), Continental qualifiers (Egypt, Japan, Serbia, United States, Venezuela), and qualifying tournaments (Italy, Poland, Germany).

Brazil was the heavy favorite, having won the last two World Championships and the 2003 and 2007 World Cup. But high drama surrounded the men’s volleyball tournament after a shocking event on the morning after the Opening Ceremony. A group of tourists were visiting the Drum Tower, when a man and woman couple, and their tour guide, were attacked by a deranged man. The man was killed and the woman severely injured. This couple was the mother and father of Wiz Bachman, who had played volleyball for the US at the 2004 Olympics, and who was married to the US men’s coach, Hugh McCutcheon. McCutcheon withdrew from coaching the team for several matches, as he and his wife kept watch over her mother in the hospital. She eventually survived and during the second week of the Beijing Olympics, was transported back to the United States for further medical care. McCutcheon then resumed coaching the US team. And in a Cinderella story, the US team, 2008 World League Champion, kept winning. They made it to the final, but once there they had to face favored Brazil. Given little chance, the United States upset the Brazilians and won the gold medal in four sets, after losing the opening set.

Pos	Team	NOC	Matches Played	Wins	Losses	Points	Sets	Set Ratio	Points	Points Ratio	Points
1	United States	USA	8	8	0	16	24-9	2.667	773-673	1.149	16	Gold
	Lloy Ball		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Sean Rooney		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	David Lee		8	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Rich Lambourne		8	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Reid Priddy		8	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Ryan Millar		8	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Riley Salmon		8	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Tom Hoff		8	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Clay Stanley		8	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Kevin Hansen		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Gabe Gardner		2	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Scott Touzinsky		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
Coach	Hugh McCutcheon
2	Brazil	BRA	8	6	2	12	20-8	2.500	687-602	1.141	12	Silver
	Bruno Rezende		8	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Marcelinho		8	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	André Heller		8	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Samuel		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Giba		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Murilo		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	André Nascimento		8	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Serginho		8	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Anderson		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Gustavo		8	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Rodrigão		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Dante		8	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
Coach	Bernardinho
3	Russian Federation	RUS	8	6	2	12	22-11	2.000	774-707	1.095	12	Bronze
	Aleksandr Korneyev		3	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Semyon Poltavsky		8	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Aleksandr Kosaryev		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Sergey Grankin		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Sergey Tetyukhin		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Vadim Khamuttskikh		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Yury Berezhko		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Aleksey Ostapenko		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Aleksandr Volkov		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Aleksey Verbov		8	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Maksim Mikhaylov		8	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Aleksey Kuleshov		8	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
Coach	Anvyar Iskakov
4	Italy	ITA	8	5	3	10	17-14	1.214	700-679	1.031	10
	Luigi Mastrangelo		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Mauro Gavotto		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Valerio Vermiglio		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Marco Meoni		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Alessandro Paparoni		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Alberto Cisolla		8	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Matteo Martino		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Hristo Zlatanov		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Mirko Corsano		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Alessandro Fei		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Emanuele Birarelli		8	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Vigor Bovolenta		7	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
Coach	Andrea Anastasi
=5	Bulgaria	BUL	6	3	3	6	11-12	0.917	530-535	0.991	6
	Evgeni Ivanov		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Hristo Tsvetanov		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Andrey Zhekov		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Boyan Yordanov		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Krasimir Gaydarski		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Matey Kaziyski		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Vladimir Nikolov		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Teodor Salparov		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Kostadin Stoykov		2	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Todor Aleksiev		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Plamen Konstantinov		2	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Ivan Tasev		3	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
Coach	Martin Stoev
=5	People's Republic of China	CHN	6	2	4	4	9-16	0.563	493-567	0.869	4
	Bian Hongmin		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Yuan Zhi		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Guo Peng		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Shi Hairong		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Cui Jianjun		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Jiao Shuai		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Yu Dawei		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Shen Qiong		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Jiang Fudong		2	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Ren Qi		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Sui Shengsheng		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Fang Yingchao		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
Coach	Zhou Jianan
=5	Poland	POL	6	4	2	8	14-9	1.556	543-515	1.054	8
	Michał Winiarski		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Piotr Gruszka		3	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Daniel Pliński		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Paweł Zagumny		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Marcin Wika		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Mariusz Wlazły		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Łukasz Kadziewicz		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Paweł Woicki		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Sebastian Świderski		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Krzysztof Gierczyński		1	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Krzysztof Ignaczak		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Marcin Możdżonek		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
Coach	Raúl Lucio
=5	Serbia	SRB	6	2	4	4	11-13	0.846	543-545	0.996	4
	Nikola Kovačević		3	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Dejan Bojović		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Novica Bjelica		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Bojan Janić		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Vlado Petković		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Marko Samardžić		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Nikola Grbić		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Miloš Nikić		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Andrija Gerić		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Ivan Miljković		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Saša Starović		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Marko Podraščanin		6	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
Coach	Igor Kolaković
=9	Germany	GER	5	1	4	2	6-12	0.500	418-440	0.950	2
	Marcus Popp		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Simon Tischer		3	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Björn Andrae		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Mark Siebeck		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Marcus Böhme		2	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Stefan Hübner		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Jochen Schöps		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Frank Dehne		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Christian Pampel		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Ralph Bergmann		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Robert Kromm		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Thomas Kröger		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
Coach	Stelian Moculescu
=9	Venezuela	VEN	5	1	4	2	8-12	0.667	421-451	0.933	2
	Andy Rojas		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Joel Silva		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Rodman Valera		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Carlos Luna		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Luis Díaz		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Ronald Méndez		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Ernardo Gómez		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Carlos Tejeda		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Iván Márquez		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Juan Carlos Blanco		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Freddy Cedeño		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Thomas Ereu DNS		–	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
Coach	Ricardo Navajas
=11	Egypt	EGY	5	0	5	0	0-15	0.000	267-379	0.704	0
	Hamdy El-Safy		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Abdalla Bekhit		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Mohamed Gabal		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Ahmed Abdelhay		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Abdel Latif Ahmed		3	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Wael Al-Aydy		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Ashraf Abou El-Hassan		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Saleh Youssef		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Mohamed Badawy		2	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Hossameldin Gomaa		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Mohamed Seif El-Nasr		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Mahmoud Abd El-Kader		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
Coach	Ahmed Zakaria
=11	Japan	JPN	5	0	5	0	4-15	0.267	392-448	0.875	0
	Nobuharu Saito		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Daisuke Usami		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Takahiro Yamamoto		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Masaji Ogino		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Yoshihiko Matsumoto		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Kota Yamamura		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Kunihiro Shimizu		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Tatsuya Fukuzawa		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Katsutoshi Tsumagari		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Yusuke Ishijima		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Yu Koshikawa		4	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
	Kosuke Tomonaga		5	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
Coach	Tatsuya Ueta

Preliminary Round

Date	10 – 18 August 2008

Group A

Date	10 – 18 August 2008
Format	Round-robin pool.

Pos	Competitors	NOC	Wins	Losses	Points	Sets	Set Ratio	Points	Points Ratio
1	United States	USA	5	0	10	15-4	3.750	460-371	1.240
2	Italy	ITA	4	1	8	13-6	2.167	439-401	1.095
3	Bulgaria	BUL	3	2	6	10-9	1.111	446-440	1.014
4	People's Republic of China	CHN	2	3	4	9-13	0.692	445-492	0.904
5	Venezuela	VEN	1	4	2	8-12	0.667	421-451	0.933
6	Japan	JPN	0	5	0	4-15	0.267	392-448	0.875

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	10 Aug 12:10	Italy	ITA	25-19, 25-18, 23-25, 25-17	Japan	JPN
Match #2	10 Aug 12:35	United States	USA	25-18, 25-18, 22-25, 21-25, 15-10	Venezuela	VEN
Match #3	10 Aug 20:00	Bulgaria	BUL	25-20, 25-21, 26-28, 25-19	People's Republic of China	CHN
Match #4	12 Aug 12:30	United States	USA	24-26, 25-22, 25-15, 25-21	Italy	ITA
Match #5	12 Aug 20:00	People's Republic of China	CHN	25-21, 21-25, 16-25, 25-21, 16-14	Venezuela	VEN
Match #6	12 Aug 22:45	Bulgaria	BUL	29-27, 23-25, 25-21, 25-19	Japan	JPN
Match #7	14 Aug 10:00	Italy	ITA	25-21, 25-20, 25-21	Venezuela	VEN
Match #8	14 Aug 20:00	People's Republic of China	CHN	25-20, 25-23, 17-25, 16-25, 15-10	Japan	JPN
Match #9	14 Aug 22:30	United States	USA	27-29, 25-21, 25-14, 26-24	Bulgaria	BUL
Match #10	16 Aug 10:00	United States	USA	25-22, 25-12, 25-18	People's Republic of China	CHN
Match #11	16 Aug 14:50	Italy	ITA	25-20, 25-21, 25-16	Bulgaria	BUL
Match #12	16 Aug 22:00	Venezuela	VEN	25-23, 25-21, 25-23	Japan	JPN
Match #13	18 Aug 10:00	Bulgaria	BUL	23-25, 25-19, 25-16, 25-22	Venezuela	VEN
Match #14	18 Aug 20:00	Italy	ITA	25-17, 25-23, 21-25, 20-25, 16-14	People's Republic of China	CHN
Match #15	18 Aug 22:35	United States	USA	25-18, 25-12, 25-21	Japan	JPN

Group B

Date	10 – 18 August 2008
Format	Round-robin pool.

Pos	Competitors	NOC	Wins	Losses	Points	Sets	Set Ratio	Points	Points Ratio
1	Brazil	BRA	4	1	8	13-4	3.250	427-373	1.145
2	Russian Federation	RUS	4	1	8	14-7	2.000	496-447	1.110
3	Poland	POL	4	1	8	12-6	2.000	434-404	1.074
4	Serbia	SRB	2	3	4	9-10	0.900	440-439	1.002
5	Germany	GER	1	4	2	6-12	0.500	418-440	0.950
6	Egypt	EGY	0	5	0	0-15	0.000	267-379	0.704

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	10 Aug 10:00	Russian Federation	RUS	20-25, 25-21, 25-22, 25-14	Serbia	SRB
Match #2	10 Aug 15:20	Brazil	BRA	25-19, 25-15, 25-18	Egypt	EGY
Match #3	10 Aug 22:20	Poland	POL	25-17, 33-31, 25-20	Germany	GER
Match #4	12 Aug 10:00	Russian Federation	RUS	25-27, 25-21, 21-25, 25-23, 16-14	Germany	GER
Match #5	12 Aug 13:00	Poland	POL	25-21, 25-18, 25-10	Egypt	EGY
Match #6	12 Aug 15:00	Brazil	BRA	25-27, 25-20, 25-17, 25-21	Serbia	SRB
Match #7	14 Aug 12:00	Germany	GER	29-27, 25-21, 25-21	Egypt	EGY
Match #8	14 Aug 12:30	Russian Federation	RUS	22-25, 26-24, 31-29, 25-19	Brazil	BRA
Match #9	14 Aug 15:05	Poland	POL	31-29, 22-25, 25-22, 25-21	Serbia	SRB
Match #10	16 Aug 12:00	Russian Federation	RUS	25-19, 25-14, 25-18	Egypt	EGY
Match #11	16 Aug 12:30	Serbia	SRB	25-21, 27-25, 24-26, 25-23	Germany	GER
Match #12	16 Aug 20:00	Brazil	BRA	30-28, 25-19, 25-19	Poland	POL
Match #13	18 Aug 12:20	Brazil	BRA	25-22, 25-21, 25-23	Germany	GER
Match #14	18 Aug 12:30	Poland	POL	17-25, 26-24, 24-26, 25-23, 15-12	Russian Federation	RUS
Match #15	18 Aug 15:15	Serbia	SRB	25-16, 25-13, 25-17	Egypt	EGY

Quarter-Finals

Date	20 August 2008
Format	Winner of each match advanced to semi-finals.

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	20 Aug 10:00	Russian Federation	RUS	20-25, 25-16, 25-22, 25-21	Bulgaria	BUL
Match #2	20 Aug 12:15	Italy	ITA	25-19, 25-22, 18-25, 26-28, 17-15	Poland	POL
Match #3	20 Aug 20:00	Brazil	BRA	25-17, 25-15, 25-16	People's Republic of China	CHN
Match #4	20 Aug 22:01	United States	USA	20-25, 25-23, 21-25, 25-18, 15-12	Serbia	SRB

Semi-Finals

Date	22 August 2008
Format	Winner of each match advanced to final round.

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	22 Aug 12:35	United States	USA	25-22, 25-21, 25-27, 22-25, 15-13	Russian Federation	RUS
Match #2	22 Aug 20:00	Brazil	BRA	19-25, 25-18, 25-21, 25-22	Italy	ITA

Final Round

Date	24 August 2008
Format	Medal round.

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match 1/2	24 Aug 12:00	United States	USA	20-25, 25-22, 25-21, 25-23	Brazil	BRA
Match 3/4	24 Aug 10:00	Russian Federation	RUS	25-22, 25-19, 25-23	Italy	ITA