Eleven Volleyball Empowerment-supported women's teams chasing Olympic dreams

As many as 11 women’s national teams that are benefitting from the almost 2.5 million CHF investment of FIVB Volleyball Empowerment are among the 24 teams that have earned the right to compete at the ongoing FIVB Road to Paris Volleyball Qualifiers.

The FIVB Volleyball Empowermentprogramme is designed to help national teams develop their potential and some of those who have applied for and received Volleyball Empowerment support are seeing the benefits as they chase their Olympic dream.

Five of the eleven teams are competing for the two Olympic quotas available for the winners and the runners-up in Pool A in Ningbo and will be hoping to challenge and upset the two big favourites, reigning two-time back-to-back world champions Serbia and mighty hosts China.

Canada, Dominican Republic and the Netherlands have already engaged in some of the most spectacular battles of the Olympic qualifiers so far. Canada, who have already been allocated a total of CHF 514,000 worth of coach support, celebrated a hard-fought 3-2 (32-30, 19-25, 15-25, 25-17, 15-13) opening-day victory (pictured in the main photo) over the Netherlands, whose coach support package for the women’s national team is worth CHF 288,000 so far. On the second day, the Dutch recovered with an emphatic 3-0 (25-13, 25-18, 25-21) win over Czechia.

The Dominicans, benefitting from CHF 510,000 worth of Volleyball Empowerment coach support, started off with a narrow five-set loss to Czechia, but then bounced back with a 3-2 (25-17, 22-25, 23-25, 25-18, 15-12) win over Canada.

Dominican Republic’s Yonkaira Pena in action against Canada

The national teams of Mexico, who have so far been allocated over CHF 72,000 of coach support, and Ukraine, competing internationally under Memorandums of Understanding with the FIVB that have granted CHF 420,000 to their national federation to continue its volleyball activities since 2022, are yet to celebrate their first wins in Ningbo.

Argentina, Bulgaria and Peru, competing in Pool B in Tokyo, and Colombia, Korea and Slovenia, playing in Pool C in Lodz are also still on the hunt for their first wins.

Slovenia’s Volleyball Empowerment coach support package is worth CHF 188,000. The Colombian national team has been allocated CHF 144,000, the Argentinean Panthers have received CHF 136,000, while Bulgaria, Korea and Peru have been supported with CHF 72,000 each.