Volleyball

Do you know how important the year 2008 is in the deaf volleyball world?  That means we will have the first world championships in volleyball for the deaf, and Summer Deaflympics is only one year after that.  Volleyball has been a part of the Summer Deaflympics program since 1969.  Regional confederations have had hosted their volleyball championships (as far as I know, EDSO had seven since 1982, and PANAMDES probably two or three since 1975).  World championships this year - finally!

2008 World Deaf Volleyball Championships - Argentina
I am pleased to announce that the official website for the volleyball world championships is www.2008volleyball.org.  Bookmark the website with your favorite browser now!  Everything you need to know about the event is on the website.  The organizing committee and I are exploring the possibility of posting "live" scores and statistics to the website.  The "Live Score" option depends on wireless access to the Internet inside the volleyball venues and electrical power for computers at the score tables and manpower.  The organizing committee, led by director Mr. Daniel Laurence, is hard at work to prepare the inaugural event for your volleyball team.

The organizing committee and I have been in contact by Internet video chat on a frequent basis.  Can you imagine the world without the Internet?!

Competing against other teams in Buenos Aires will give your coaching staff and athletes an opportunity to "evaluate" your opponents and then use the next 13 months to train for the 2009 Summer Deaflympics and meet some of your familiar opponents again.

2010 World Deaf Beach Volleyball Championships - Israel
The Israel Deaf Sports Organization has already started planning for the first world championships in beach volleyball by setting up an organizing committee.  Please allow me to introduce Mr. Ido Rosink - he is the director of the organizing committee.  I am impressed with his work and commitment to get various pre-event objectives met.

Please be reminded that the FIVB may or may not amend the beach volleyball rules between 2008 and 2010.  I will communicate any rule changes in the technical regulations later.  The current quota is 2 teams per gender per nation.

Mr. Rosink is also the webmaster for the official beach volleyball world championships website.  The website address is www.2010beachvolleyball.org.  You will like the special effects.

Bids to Host Future Volleyball or Beach Volleyball World Championships
If your organization is serious about hosting the next world championships event in either volleyball (year 2012) or beach volleyball (year 2014), please contact me for the Bid Application Form as soon as possible.  I highly recommend that if you are interested in hosting the 2012 volleyball event, you should complete the form and bring it with you to the Technical Delegate meeting in Buenos Aires.  I will ensure that the paperwork is in order and forward all documents to ICSD for consideration and approval at the 2009 ICSD Congress in Taipei.

I am available at VolleyballTD@ciss.org for any technical questions or concerns you may have.  Please email me in advance to arrange for date and time if you want to video-chat with me using ooVoo or NetMeeting.

John Knetzger
ICSD Technical Director - Volleyball