After the end of the women’s FIVB Road to Paris Volleyball Qualifiers on Sunday, seven of the 12 participating teams in next year’s Olympic Games are now known. With Brazil, Dominican Republic, Poland, Serbia, Türkiye, United States and hosts France having already secured their spots at Paris 2024, all eyes now fall on the FIVB Volleyball World Ranking, which will determine the remaining five participants.
The final line-up will be officially known after the end of the Volleyball Nations League 2024 Preliminary Phase, but who would have qualified if the cut-off were today and logically has the best shot at the remaining Olympic vacancies?
To guarantee the principle of universality, the next Paris 2024 participants will be selected from the continental confederations, which do not have a qualified team yet. Three of the continents no longer fall under this criterion as France, Poland, Serbia and Türkiye will represent Europe, Dominican Republic and United States will represent North and Central America and the Caribbean, while Brazil will represent South America.
China are in the best position among all Asian teams. They are currently sixth in the World Ranking, keeping the same place they had at the end of July, after the previous world-level competition. However, during the course of the 2023 AVC Asian Championship and the Olympic qualifications they have lost a net of over 15 points from their record and are down to a new total of 329.65 points. This has allowed Japan, the next highest-ranked Asian team, to narrow the gap down to only 24.56 points. The Japanese dropped one spot down to number nine, but actually net-gained in points over the last two months.
