Gold medal in Tokyo, Italo Ferreira won the Fortaleza Basquete Cearense

Seated volleyball first appeared at the Paralympic Games in Arnhem (Netherlands) in 1980. A coherent stage, the sport appeared on Dutch soil in 1956 for the rehabilitation of soldiers, combining “traditional” volleyball with sitting ball, a sport of German origin (also aimed at people with disabilities). Some of the rules are the same (like sitting) and some not so much: No sitting ballThe ball may bounce on the ground.

There are similarities between seated volleyball and “traditional” volleyball. In both sets, the dispute occurs in the best five sets, and the team that wins three sets, always wins by at least two points from the opponent. The first four sets end when one of the teams reaches 25 points. The last one is called break the tie, up to 15 points.

The Tokyo Games Organizing Committee releases the table for seated volleyball matches: https://t.co/Mp6roG5lva pic.twitter.com/zaN4R7zd0O

– Brazilian Paralympic Committee – Brazilian Paralympic Committee (cpboficial) August 11, 2021

In volleyball in a seated position, the serve and attack on the net can be repelled, unlike the “traditional”. However, athletes must remain in their seats to perform plays.

The number of players on each side of the field is the same: six. The difference between them is that they are divided into two categories according to the degree of disability. In VS1, there are players who are amputees or those with greater mobility limitations. Others, with less physical impairment of movement, are found in VS2. Each team can only have two VS2s on the team, and they cannot be on the court at the same time – which is ten meters long and six meters wide, with the net height from 1.05 meters (female) to 1.15 meters. M (male).

Brazil has been involved in volleyball at the Paralympics since the Olympic Games in Beijing (China), in 2008, when the men’s team took sixth place. Four years later, in London (UK), the country was present in both men’s and women’s competitions: in both the country took fifth place. At Rio 2016, the women’s team won their first Brazilian way medal, winning the bronze – the men finished fourth.

Among the men, Iran is the most victorious country, with six gold medals in the Paralympic Games and two silvers, all in the last eight editions. The Netherlands and Bosnia and Herzegovina, who have won the title twice, completed the title roster. The Europeans made a third invasion, in Toronto (Canada), in 1976, but, at that time, the method was in dispute as an exhibition. In the women’s tournament, which only began at the 2004 Athens Games (Greece), China won the tournament three times, but lost its dominance in 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, to the United States.

the first show

The women’s team will be the first to play in Tokyo. On the 27th (Friday), at 6:30 a.m. (Brasilia time), the Brazilians will face Canada. On the 29th, at 8:30 a.m., they encounter the Japanese flight attendants. On the 31st, at 10 p.m., it will be the Italian competitors. The first two groups of the group advance to the semi-finals, which will take place on September 3. The decision will be gold in the fifth.

The men’s team will start on the 28th, at 6:30 am, against China. On the 30th, at 8:30 am, Iran will be the current world and Paralympic champions. The next day, at two in the morning, the Brazilians measure their strength with Germany. If they qualify, they will have a semi-final duel on September 2, with the final scheduled for the fourth.