# Volleyball at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's tournament

The men's tournament in volleyball at the 2008 Summer Olympics was the 12th edition of the event at the Summer Olympics, organized by the world's governing body, the FIVB, in conjunction with the IOC. It was held in Beijing, China from 10 to 24 August 2008.
The twelve competing teams were split equally into two pools of six teams. Each team played all other teams in their pool with the winning team gaining 2 points and the losing side 1 point. The top four teams from each pool progressed through to the quarterfinals. The rest of the tournament was a single-elimination bracket, with a bronze medal match held between the two semifinal losers.
A total of 38 matches were played: 15 in each group, 4 quarterfinals, 2 semifinals, 1 bronze medal match, and 1 gold medal match.

## Competition schedule

| P | Preliminary round | ¼ | Quarter-finals | ½ | Semi-finals | B | Bronze medal match | F | Gold medal match |
| Sun 10 | Mon 11 | Tue 12 | Wed 13 | Thu 14 | Fri 15 | Sat 16 | Sun 17 | Mon 18 | Tue 19 | Wed 20 | Wed 20 | Thu 21 | Thu 21 | Fri 22 | Fri 22 | Sat 23 | Sun 24 | Sun 24 |
| P | | P | | P | | P | | P | | ¼ | ¼ | | | ½ | ½ | | B | F |

## Qualification

| Means of qualification | Date | Host | Vacancies | Qualified |
| Host Country | 13 July 2001 | Moscow | 1 | China |
| 2007 World Cup | 18 November – 2 December 2007 | Japan | 3 | Brazil |
| 2007 World Cup | 18 November – 2 December 2007 | Japan | 3 | Russia |
| 2007 World Cup | 18 November – 2 December 2007 | Japan | 3 | Bulgaria |
| African Qualifier | 3–9 February 2008 | Durban | 1 | Egypt |
| European Qualifier | 7–13 January 2008 | İzmir | 1 | Serbia |
| North American Qualifier | 6–11 January 2008 | Caguas | 1 | United States |
| South American Qualifier | 3–7 January 2008 | Formosa | 1 | Venezuela |
| 1st World Qualifier | 23–25 May 2008 | Düsseldorf | 1 | Germany |
| 2nd World Qualifier | 30 May – 1 June 2008 | Espinho | 1 | Poland |
| 3rd World Qualifier | 31 May – 8 June 2008 | Tokyo | 1 | Italy |
| Asian Qualifier | 31 May – 8 June 2008 | Tokyo | 1 | Japan |
| Total | Total | Total | 12 | |
* ↑ The Asian Qualifier was combined with the 3rd World Qualifier. The first place team of the tournament qualified as the 3rd World Qualifier winners, while the best Asian team except the 3rd World Qualifier winners qualified as the Asian Qualifier winners.

## Pools composition

Teams were seeded following the serpentine system according to their FIVB World Ranking as of 3 December 2007. FIVB reserved the right to seed the hosts as head of pool A regardless of the World Ranking. Rankings are shown in brackets except the hosts who ranked 21st.
| Pool A | Pool B |
| China (Hosts) | Brazil (1) |
| United States (3) | Russia (2) |
| Bulgaria (4) | Poland (5) |
| Italy (10) | Serbia (8) |
| Japan (12) | Egypt (14) |
| Venezuela (20) | Germany (19) |

## Venues

| Main venue | Sub venue |
| Beijing, China | Beijing, China |
| Capital Indoor Stadium | Beijing Institute of Technology Gymnasium |
| Capacity: 17,345 | Capacity: 5,000 |

## Preliminary round

* All times are China Standard Time (UTC+08:00).
* The top four teams in each pool qualified for the quarterfinals.

### Pool A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | Pts | SPW | SPL | SPR | SW | SL | SR | Qualification |
| 1 | United States | 5 | 5 | 0 | 10 | 460 | 371 | 1.240 | 15 | 4 | 3.750 | Quarterfinals |
| 2 | Italy | 5 | 4 | 1 | 9 | 439 | 401 | 1.095 | 13 | 6 | 2.167 | Quarterfinals |
| 3 | Bulgaria | 5 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 446 | 440 | 1.014 | 10 | 9 | 1.111 | Quarterfinals |
| 4 | China | 5 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 445 | 492 | 0.904 | 9 | 13 | 0.692 | Quarterfinals |
| 5 | Venezuela | 5 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 421 | 451 | 0.933 | 8 | 12 | 0.667 | |
| 6 | Japan | 5 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 392 | 448 | 0.875 | 4 | 15 | 0.267 | |

### Pool B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | Pts | SPW | SPL | SPR | SW | SL | SR | Qualification |
| 1 | Brazil | 5 | 4 | 1 | 9 | 427 | 373 | 1.145 | 13 | 4 | 3.250 | Quarterfinals |
| 2 | Russia | 5 | 4 | 1 | 9 | 496 | 447 | 1.110 | 14 | 7 | 2.000 | Quarterfinals |
| 3 | Poland | 5 | 4 | 1 | 9 | 434 | 404 | 1.074 | 12 | 6 | 2.000 | Quarterfinals |
| 4 | Serbia | 5 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 440 | 439 | 1.002 | 9 | 10 | 0.900 | Quarterfinals |
| 5 | Germany | 5 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 418 | 440 | 0.950 | 6 | 12 | 0.500 | |
| 6 | Egypt | 5 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 267 | 379 | 0.704 | 0 | 15 | 0.000 | |

## Final round

* All times are China Standard Time (UTC+08:00).
* The first ranked teams of both pools played against the fourth ranked teams of the other pool. The second ranked teams faced the second or third ranked teams of the other pool, determined by drawing of lots. The drawing of lots was held after the last match in the preliminary round.
| Quarterfinals | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | | Gold medal match | Gold medal match |
| 20 August | 20 August | | | |
| United States | 3 | | | |
| United States | 3 | 22 August | 22 August | | |
| Serbia | 2 | 22 August | 22 August | |
| Serbia | 2 | United States | 3 | |
| 20 August | 20 August | | United States | 3 | |
| 20 August | 20 August | Russia | 2 | |
| Bulgaria | 1 | Russia | 2 | |
| Bulgaria | 1 | | | | 24 August | 24 August |
| Russia | 3 | | | | 24 August | 24 August |
| Russia | 3 | | | | United States | 3 |
| 20 August | 20 August | | | | | United States | 3 |
| 20 August | 20 August | | | | Brazil | 1 |
| Italy | 3 | | | | Brazil | 1 |
| Italy | 3 | 22 August | 22 August | | | |
| Poland | 2 | 22 August | 22 August | | | |
| Poland | 2 | Italy | 1 | | | |
| 20 August | 20 August | | Italy | 1 | | | |
| 20 August | 20 August | Brazil | 3 | | Bronze medal match | Bronze medal match |
| China | 0 | Brazil | 3 | | Bronze medal match | Bronze medal match |
| China | 0 | | | | 24 August | 24 August |
| Brazil | 3 | | | | 24 August | 24 August |
| Brazil | 3 | | | | Russia | 3 |
| | | | | | Italy | 0 |

### Gold medal match
## Final standing

| Rank | Team |
| | United States |
| | Brazil |
| | Russia |
| 4 | Italy |
| 5 | Bulgaria |
| 5 | China |
| 5 | Poland |
| 5 | Serbia |
| 9 | Germany |
| 9 | Venezuela |
| 11 | Egypt |
| 11 | Japan |
* 2008 Men's Olympic champions
* United States 3rd title
* 12–man roster
* Lloy Ball, Sean Rooney, David Lee, Rich Lambourne (L), Reid Priddy, Ryan Millar, Riley Salmon, Tom Hoff (c), Clay Stanley, Kevin Hansen, Gabe Gardner, Scott Touzinsky
* Head coach
* Hugh McCutcheon

## Medalists

| Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| United States (USA)Lloy Ball Sean Rooney David Lee Rich Lambourne (L) Reid Priddy Ryan Millar Riley Salmon Tom Hoff (c) Clay Stanley Kevin Hansen Gabriel Gardner Scott Touzinsky Head coach: Hugh McCutcheon | Brazil (BRA)Bruno Rezende Marcelo Elgarten André Heller Samuel Fuchs Giba (c) Murilo Endres André Nascimento Sérgio Santos (L) Anderson Rodrigues Gustavo Endres Rodrigo Santana Dante Amaral Head coach: Bernardinho | Russia (RUS)Aleksandr Korneev Semyon Poltavskiy Aleksandr Kosarev Sergey Grankin Sergey Tetyukhin Vadim Khamuttskikh (c) Yury Berezhko Aleksey Ostapenko Aleksandr Volkov Aleksey Verbov (L) Maksim Mikhaylov Aleksey Kuleshov Head coach: Vladimir Alekno |

## Awards

* Most valuable player
    Clayton Stanley
* Best scorer
    Clayton Stanley
* Best spiker
    Sebastian Świderski
* Best blocker
    Gustavo Endres
* Best server
    Clayton Stanley
* Best digger
    Aleksey Verbov
* Best setter
    Paweł Zagumny
* Best receiver
    Michał Winiarski
* Best libero
    Mirko Corsano