What are Olympic Beach Volleyball rules? Explaining everything you need to know for Paris 2024

The Paris 2024 Olympics are in full swing, and it's a glorious sight to behold for sports fans. At any given moment of the day, there are dozens of different events happening in the City of Light, from table tennis to archery and badminton to gymnastics.

One of the most entertaining sports to watch in these Olympics, and certainly one of the most scenic, due to its being contested with the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop, is beach volleyball. Most sports fans know the general rules of soccer, basketball, or the 100-meter dash, but when it comes to sports that the casual fan doesn't often watch outside the Olympics, it can be an uphill battle to understand exactly what is going on.

FanSided is here to get you up to speed on all of the bumping, setting, and spiking, so by the time the medal rounds begin, you'll be a newly minted expert on a sport that the United States has long excelled at.

Olympic Beach Volleyball rules

Beach volleyball differs from its indoor counterpart in that each match is a 2v2 affair, but the rules of play are the same. Each point begins with a serve that must clear the net in one hit. After that, each team is allowed to touch the ball three times before it must go back over the net, but teammates must alternate shots. A player can't hit the ball twice in a row, with one exception: if they block a ball at the net, they can then hit the next shot as well. A point ends when the ball touches the ground (either in- or out-of-bounds), a team hits the ball more than three times, or a player touches the ball twice in a row illegally. A point will also end if a player touches the net, which can sometimes happen when attempting to block a shot.

Beach volleyball features rally scoring, which means that when a team wins a point, their score goes up by one. This differs from traditional scoring, as points used to be awarded only to the serving team. With rally scoring, the team that wins the point also wins the right to serve the next point.

Olympic Beach Volleyball scoring and match length

Each Olympic beach volleyball match consists of a best two-out-of-three set format. The first two sets are played as a race to 21, with each team needing to win by two to secure the set. In the case of a tie after the first two sets, the third set is played as a race to 15.

Olympic Beach Volleyball schedule and format

There are two divisions in Olympic beach volleyball: men's and women's. There are 24 teams in each division, with teams divided into six groups of four each. Each team plays the other three teams in its group in a round robin format, with the top two teams from each group and the top two third-place teams advancing to the elimination round. The other four third-place team will then face off, with the two winners also joining the elimination round.

This pares the field down to 16 teams in each division, and from that point forward, a loss means elimination from the tournament. Teams that make it to the final four will then play for the medals, with the semifinal winners meeting to determine gold and silver, and the semifinals losers meeting to play for bronze.

Other things to know about Olympic Beach Volleyball

Just as they would in a tennis tiebreaker, teams change sides every seven points during the first two sets. If the match reaches a third set, teams change sides every five points. Each team is allowed one timeout in each set, with an additional "Technical Timeout" being called automatically when the teams reach a combined score of 21 in each of the first two sets.

The defending Olympic champions in beach volleyball are Norway in the men's division and the United States in the women's division. April Ross and Alix Klineman, the defending women's gold medalists, are not in Paris to defend their title (they each gave birth last year), though the U.S. has two other women's teams that will try to bring home the gold in their stead: Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss, and Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes. On the men's side, Andy Benesh and Miles Partain make up one team, while former NBA player Chase Budinger and Miles Evans make up the other team.