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Four U.S. beach volleyball teams will be leaving for Beijing in a few days. The teams of May-Treanor/Walsh, Rogers/Dalhausser, Rosenthal/Gibb, and Youngs/Branagh all have high seeds and are expected to do well in the first round of extended pool play, before the single eliminations start. Despite their #1 Olympic qualifiaction ranking and 2007 World Championship status, the first two pairs have been assigned a #2 seed for the Olympics. Why do you ask? Well, there's a unique rule in Olympics beach volleyball that allows the home country a #1 seed - as long as its team ranked in the top six. And in the case of the top two men's and women's Chinese teams, each has earned the #1 seed. Incredible? - Yes! Unfair - Yes?
PS - To my knowledge, no other Olympic sport affords this advantage.
2 comments:
In less established sports...I would guess that the FIVB feels that marketing to the home-crowd is more important than fairness.
It is crazy that it's the only olympic sport that does this and who decided that the home team had to be in the "top six" to get this advantage?
With the large amount of international beach volleyball talent...What advantage do you really get moving from #6 to #1?
Thanks for sharing your views and questioning this strange policy. All teams, and especially the top where a point or two could mean the difference in a match, strive for the highest seed possible. Even a seeding 1 or 2 spots higher could mean the difference in advancing out of the pool play in a better position for the re-seeding.
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