MEN’S VOLLEYBALL
LONDON OLYMPICS PREVIEW
Powering up I
by Don Patterson
2012 MEN’S OLYMPIC VOLLEYBALL
• Competition dates: July 29-Aug 12
• Venue: Earls Court Exhibition Center in London (capacity: 19,000)
• Participating countries: Pool A – Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Argentina, Bulgaria, Australia; Pool B – Brazil, Russia, USA, Serbia, Germany, Tunisia
• Defending medalists from Beijing: USA (gold), Brazil (silver), Russia (bronze)
• Bronze medal match: August 12, 9:30 a.m. London time
• Gold medal match: August 12, 1 p.m. London time
f a facial expression exists that combines fatigue with relief and joy, that was the one U.S. Men’s National Volleyball Team
Head Coach Alan Knipe was wearing in the late evening on May 12 at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, Calif.; with good reason. His team had defeated Canada less than an hour earlier to win the NORCECA Men’s Continental Olympic Qualifi cation Tournament and earn a ticket to the London Olympics, and it was the end of a long road. Very long.
The back-story: the FIVB decided to push back the NORCECA tournament to May from its tradi- tional January slot so as not to disrupt the profes- sional club seasons worldwide. So when the U.S. men didn’t qualify for the Olympics at the 2011
48 | VOLLEYBALLUSA • Digital Issue at
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RETURNING STAR: Clay Stan- ley was the MVP of the 2008 Olympics. (Photo: Don Liebig)
After a quad fi lled with rough patches, the U.S. Men’s National Volleyball Team is looking to peak at the right time and challenge for a medal in London
FIVB World Cup in November, they had to wait four months and fi nish the job just two-and-a-half months before the London Games will begin. Yes, it was stressful. The past three U.S. Men’s Olympic teams have all qualifi ed in January, al- lowing more preparation time before the Games. To his credit, Knipe took a glass-is-half-full view, pointing out that, had the tournament been in January, the team would have been without opposite Clay Stanley, who was still recovering from arthroscopic surgery he had on his left knee in December. Stanley, the Olympic Games most valuable player in Beijing, ended up being the MVP of the NORCECA qualifi er, and he helped power the U.S. to a 5-0 record that included a semifi nal victory over Cuba and three-set sweep of a solid Canadian team in the fi nal.
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