| | Event type

Volleyball, Men

Date	17 September – 2 October 1988
Status	Olympic
Location	Jam-sil Che-yuk-gwan, Seoul Sports Complex, Seoul / Che-yuk-gwan, Han-yang Dae-hak-gyo, Seoul / Saemaul Sports Hall, Seoul
Participants	143 from 12 countries
Format	Round-robin pools advanced teams to classification matches.

The teams qualified as follows: defending Olympic Champion (United States), World Cup Champion (USSR, replacing the United States), 1986 World Champion (Bulgaria, replacing the United States and Soviet Union), host nation (Korea), Africa Champion (Tunisia), Asia Champion (Japan), North America Champion (Cuba), European Champion (France, replacing the Soviet Union and Bulgaria), South America Champion (Brazil). Three qualifying tournaments were held, in Brazil (Argentina), Netherlands (Netherlands) and Italy (Sweden). Italy was added when Cuba boycotted the Games.

By 1988, the United States was the dominant team in the world, coached by Marv Dunphy. They had won the 1984 Olympics, the 1986 World Championships, and the 1987 Pan-American Games. They were led by Karch Kiraly, considered the best volleyball player in the world, and Steve Timmons, a 1.95 [6-5] spiker/blocker. Unlike 1984, they would be challenged by the Soviet Union, which had won the last nine European Championships. Before the Olympics they had played nine matches in World Cup play, with the US winning seven. In pool play, the US came thru undefeated while the Soviets lost the tough Brazilians in five sets. The US had been in trouble against Argentina in the pool, trailing by two sets, when Jeff Stork took control in the third set, smashing 11 points to win the set, and the US then went on to win in five sets. The US had to play Brazil in the semis, but crushed them in three sets, 15-3, 15-5, 15-11, proving their superiority. In the final, the US played the USSR, and the Soviets won the first set, 15-13. But after that the US pulled away and won in four sets. The USA was the first team to win back-to-back Olympic volleyball gold medals since the Soviet Union had won the first two gold medals in 1964-68. Argentina won the bronze medal, upsetting Brazil in five sets, and a 3 hour, 10 minute marathon match.

Pos	Number	Team	NOC	Matches Played	Wins	Losses	Points	Sets	Set Ratio	Points	Points Ratio	Side Outs
1	–	United States	USA	7	7	0	14	21-4	5.250	366-211	1.735	–	Gold
	1	Troy Tanner		6	–	–	1	–-–	–	–-–	–	5
	2	Dave Saunders		4	–	–	14	–-–	–	–-–	–	8
	3	Jon Root		3	–	–	4	–-–	–	–-–	–	11
	4	Bob Ctvrtlik		7	–	–	48	–-–	–	–-–	–	79
	5	Doug Partie		7	–	–	40	–-–	–	–-–	–	62
	6	Steve Timmons		7	–	–	89	–-–	–	–-–	–	124
	7	Craig Buck		6	–	–	48	–-–	–	–-–	–	72
	8	Scott Fortune		6	–	–	13	–-–	–	–-–	–	13
	9	Ricci Luyties		4	–	–	7	–-–	–	–-–	–	7
	10	Jeff Stork		5	–	–	21	–-–	–	–-–	–	28
	11	Eric Sato		7	–	–	7	–-–	–	–-–	–	2
	15	Karch Kiraly		7	–	–	65	–-–	–	–-–	–	99
Coach		Marv Dunphy
2	–	Soviet Union	URS	7	5	2	12	18-7	2.571	332-282	1.177	–	Silver
	1	Yury Panchenko		3	–	–	15	–-–	–	–-–	–	22
	2	Andrey Kuznetsov		7	–	–	44	–-–	–	–-–	–	68
	3	Vyacheslav Zaytsev		5	–	–	3	–-–	–	–-–	–	0
	4	Igor Runov		4	–	–	2	–-–	–	–-–	–	8
	5	Vladimir Shkurikhin		7	–	–	34	–-–	–	–-–	–	61
	6	Yevgeny Krasilnikov		1	–	–	1	–-–	–	–-–	–	1
	7	Raimonds Vilde		6	–	–	56	–-–	–	–-–	–	67
	8	Valery Losev		7	–	–	27	–-–	–	–-–	–	16
	9	Yury Sapega		4	–	–	22	–-–	–	–-–	–	61
	10	Aleksandr Sorokolet		7	–	–	37	–-–	–	–-–	–	109
	11	Yaroslav Antonov		7	–	–	53	–-–	–	–-–	–	128
	12	Yury Cherednik		4	–	–	17	–-–	–	–-–	–	7
Coach		Vladimir Kondra
3	–	Argentina	ARG	7	4	3	11	14-12	1.167	315-317	0.994	–	Bronze
	1	Claudio Zulianello		6	–	–	1	–-–	–	–-–	–	12
	2	Daniel Castellani		7	–	–	39	–-–	–	–-–	–	76
	3	Eduardo Martínez		7	–	–	38	–-–	–	–-–	–	84
	4	Alejandro Diz		6	–	–	5	–-–	–	–-–	–	6
	5	Daniel Colla		2	–	–	2	–-–	–	–-–	–	4
	6	Carlos Weber		5	–	–	0	–-–	–	–-–	–	0
	7	Hugo Conte		7	–	–	56	–-–	–	–-–	–	156
	8	Waldo Kantor		7	–	–	19	–-–	–	–-–	–	3
	9	Raúl Quiroga		6	–	–	61	–-–	–	–-–	–	137
	10	Jon Emili Uriarte		7	–	–	57	–-–	–	–-–	–	78
	11	José De Palma		7	–	–	10	–-–	–	–-–	–	24
	12	Juan Carlos Cuminetti		5	–	–	4	–-–	–	–-–	–	19
Coach		Luis Muchaga
4	–	Brazil	BRA	7	4	3	11	16-13	1.231	374-342	1.094	–
	1	Maurício		6	–	–	4	–-–	–	–-–	–	4
	2	Wágner Antonio		1	–	–	0	–-–	–	–-–	–	0
	3	Paulo Roese		7	–	–	3	–-–	–	–-–	–	0
	4	Montanaro		7	–	–	48	–-–	–	–-–	–	118
	5	Paulão		7	–	–	40	–-–	–	–-–	–	50
	6	Renan		7	–	–	78	–-–	–	–-–	–	156
	7	William		7	–	–	23	–-–	–	–-–	–	16
	8	Amauri		7	–	–	34	–-–	–	–-–	–	54
	9	Carlão		7	–	–	72	–-–	–	–-–	–	142
	10	Domingos Maracanã		6	–	–	24	–-–	–	–-–	–	20
	11	Leonídio de Pra		7	–	–	18	–-–	–	–-–	–	32
	12	Pampa		5	–	–	24	–-–	–	–-–	–	73
Coach		Bebeto de Freitas
5	–	Netherlands	NED	7	5	2	12	16-9	1.778	314-272	1.154	–
	1	Martin Teffer		3	–	–	0	–-–	–	–-–	–	0
	4	Pieter Jan Leeuwerink		4	–	–	1	–-–	–	–-–	–	1
	5	Ron Boudrie		6	–	–	2	–-–	–	–-–	–	8
	6	Jan Posthuma		7	–	–	63	–-–	–	–-–	–	55
	7	Ronald Zoodsma		7	–	–	68	–-–	–	–-–	–	103
	8	Ron Zwerver		7	–	–	56	–-–	–	–-–	–	166
	9	Avital Selinger		3	–	–	1	–-–	–	–-–	–	0
	10	Edwin Benne		7	–	–	56	–-–	–	–-–	–	97
	11	Teun Buijs		5	–	–	2	–-–	–	–-–	–	4
	12	Peter Blangé		7	–	–	40	–-–	–	–-–	–	28
	13	Marco Brouwers		4	–	–	3	–-–	–	–-–	–	5
	15	Rob Grabert		7	–	–	50	–-–	–	–-–	–	67
Coach		Arie Selinger
6	–	Bulgaria	BUL	7	3	4	10	10-12	0.833	259-270	0.959	–
	1	Konstantin Mitev		2	–	–	0	–-–	–	–-–	–	5
	2	Petyo Dragiev		7	–	–	30	–-–	–	–-–	–	30
	3	Borislav Kyosev		7	–	–	42	–-–	–	–-–	–	84
	4	Lyubomir Ganev		7	–	–	51	–-–	–	–-–	–	149
	5	Iliyan Kaziyski		5	–	–	1	–-–	–	–-–	–	2
	6	Dimo Tonev		7	–	–	43	–-–	–	–-–	–	52
	7	Petko Petkov		6	–	–	13	–-–	–	–-–	–	27
	8	Plamen Hristov		7	–	–	31	–-–	–	–-–	–	19
	9	Sava Kovachev		4	–	–	9	–-–	–	–-–	–	22
	11	Nayden Naydenov		6	–	–	22	–-–	–	–-–	–	47
	12	Milcho Milanov		4	–	–	2	–-–	–	–-–	–	12
	14	Tsvetan Florov		4	–	–	2	–-–	–	–-–	–	9
Coach		Todor Piterkov
7	–	Sweden	SWE	7	3	4	10	14-16	0.875	350-388	0.902	–
	2	Urban Lennartsson		6	–	–	12	–-–	–	–-–	–	23
	4	Jannis Kalmazidis		4	–	–	0	–-–	–	–-–	–	0
	5	Jan Hedengård		7	–	–	18	–-–	–	–-–	–	19
	7	Mats Karlsson		5	–	–	9	–-–	–	–-–	–	11
	8	Tomas Hoszek		7	–	–	8	–-–	–	–-–	–	10
	10	Per-Anders Sääf		7	–	–	54	–-–	–	–-–	–	62
	11	Bengt Gustafson		7	–	–	78	–-–	–	–-–	–	166
	12	Håkan Björne		7	–	–	44	–-–	–	–-–	–	136
	13	Lars Nilsson		7	–	–	43	–-–	–	–-–	–	88
	14	Peter Tholse		7	–	–	45	–-–	–	–-–	–	60
	15	Patrik Johansson		6	–	–	3	–-–	–	–-–	–	1
	9	Anders Lundmark DNS		–	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
Coach		Anders Kristiansson
8	–	France	FRA	7	3	4	10	12-13	0.923	312-300	1.040	–
	1	Philippe Blain		7	–	–	38	–-–	–	–-–	–	85
	2	Jean-Baptiste Martzluff		4	–	–	1	–-–	–	–-–	–	0
	3	Hervé Mazzon		6	–	–	19	–-–	–	–-–	–	44
	4	Éric N'Gapeth		6	–	–	16	–-–	–	–-–	–	36
	5	Éric Bouvier		7	–	–	62	–-–	–	–-–	–	170
	6	Christophe Meneau		6	–	–	7	–-–	–	–-–	–	43
	7	Jean-Marc Jurkovitz		7	–	–	38	–-–	–	–-–	–	59
	9	Laurent Tillie		7	–	–	53	–-–	–	–-–	–	101
	10	Olivier Rossard		7	–	–	1	–-–	–	–-–	–	9
	11	Patrick Duflos		2	–	–	1	–-–	–	–-–	–	10
	12	Alain Fabiani		7	–	–	14	–-–	–	–-–	–	15
	15	Philippe-Marie Salvan		3	–	–	1	–-–	–	–-–	–	0
Coach		Éric Daniel
9	–	Italy	ITA	7	4	3	11	13-13	1.000	318-290	1.097	–
	1	Andrea Gardini		7	–	–	38	–-–	–	–-–	–	68
	2	Andrea Giani		7	–	–	35	–-–	–	–-–	–	41
	3	Pier Paolo Lucchetta		6	–	–	8	–-–	–	–-–	–	23
	4	Ferdinando De Giorgi		7	–	–	12	–-–	–	–-–	–	4
	5	Marco Bracci		3	–	–	1	–-–	–	–-–	–	9
	6	Claudio Galli		7	–	–	27	–-–	–	–-–	–	41
	7	Lorenzo Bernardi		6	–	–	1	–-–	–	–-–	–	3
	8	Alessandro Lazzeroni		6	–	–	2	–-–	–	–-–	–	2
	9	Massimo Castagna		7	–	–	45	–-–	–	–-–	–	70
	10	Andrea Zorzi		7	–	–	85	–-–	–	–-–	–	148
	11	Luca Cantagalli		7	–	–	45	–-–	–	–-–	–	84
	12	Andrea Lucchetta		1	–	–	1	–-–	–	–-–	–	0
Coach		Carmelo Pittera
10	–	Japan	JPN	7	2	5	9	10-17	0.588	305-346	0.882	–
	1	Yuji Kasama		7	–	–	10	–-–	–	–-–	–	14
	2	Akihiro Iwashima		7	–	–	26	–-–	–	–-–	–	63
	3	Yasunori Kumada		7	–	–	30	–-–	–	–-–	–	55
	4	Eizaburo Mitsuhashi		7	–	–	41	–-–	–	–-–	–	106
	5	Masayoshi Manabe		7	–	–	14	–-–	–	–-–	–	10
	6	Kazutomo Yoneyama		7	–	–	10	–-–	–	–-–	–	11
	7	Hiromichi Kageyama		6	–	–	33	–-–	–	–-–	–	79
	8	Hideharu Hara		4	–	–	2	–-–	–	–-–	–	9
	9	Kimio Sugimoto		4	–	–	8	–-–	–	–-–	–	17
	10	Yuzuru Inoue		7	–	–	40	–-–	–	–-–	–	116
	11	Masaki Kaito		3	–	–	2	–-–	–	–-–	–	2
	12	Shunichi Kawai		7	–	–	42	–-–	–	–-–	–	82
Coach		Kazuya Mitake
11	–	Republic of Korea	KOR	7	2	5	9	10-17	0.588	306-355	0.862	–
	1	Choi Cheon-Sik		7	–	–	33	–-–	–	–-–	–	74
	2	Lee Sang-Yeol		7	–	–	46	–-–	–	–-–	–	102
	3	Jang Yun-Chang		7	–	–	42	–-–	–	–-–	–	118
	4	Han Jang-Seok		5	–	–	18	–-–	–	–-–	–	28
	5	Lee Seong-Hui		2	–	–	0	–-–	–	–-–	–	6
	6	Kim Sa-Seok		7	–	–	11	–-–	–	–-–	–	20
	7	Park Sam-Ryong		3	–	–	0	–-–	–	–-–	–	1
	8	Lee Myeong-Hak		6	–	–	13	–-–	–	–-–	–	11
	9	Kim Ho-Cheol		7	–	–	14	–-–	–	–-–	–	5
	10	Lee Chae-Eon		4	–	–	6	–-–	–	–-–	–	10
	11	Lee Jong-Gyeong		7	–	–	22	–-–	–	–-–	–	65
	12	Jeong Ui-Tak		7	–	–	41	–-–	–	–-–	–	47
Coach		Lee Kyu-So
12	–	Tunisia	TUN	7	0	7	7	0-21	0.000	137-315	0.435	–
	1	Faycal Ben Amara		4	–	–	1	–-–	–	–-–	–	0
	2	Mohamed Sarsar		2	–	–	3	–-–	–	–-–	–	3
	3	Rashid Bousarsar		7	–	–	5	–-–	–	–-–	–	5
	4	Lotfi Ben Slimane		1	–	–	0	–-–	–	–-–	–	0
	5	Msaddak Lahmar		6	–	–	25	–-–	–	–-–	–	112
	6	Hedi Bousarsar		7	–	–	16	–-–	–	–-–	–	53
	7	Abderrazak Ben Massaoud		6	–	–	8	–-–	–	–-–	–	40
	8	Raouf Chenoufi		7	–	–	11	–-–	–	–-–	–	28
	9	Hichem Ben Amira		1	–	–	0	–-–	–	–-–	–	0
	10	Mourad Tebourski		7	–	–	16	–-–	–	–-–	–	43
	11	Abdel Aziz Ben Abdallah		7	–	–	26	–-–	–	–-–	–	82
	12	Fethi Ghariani		5	–	–	1	–-–	–	–-–	–	0
Coach		Hubert Wagner

Preliminary Round

Date	17 – 26 September 1988

Group A

Date	17 – 26 September 1988
Format	Round-robin pools.

Pos	Competitors	NOC	Wins	Losses	Points	Sets	Set Ratio	Points	Points Ratio
1	Soviet Union	URS	4	1	9	14-4	3.500	248-190	1.305
2	Brazil	BRA	4	1	9	14-7	2.000	296-225	1.316
3	Sweden	SWE	2	3	7	9-11	0.818	220-262	0.840
4	Bulgaria	BUL	2	3	7	7-9	0.778	190-194	0.979
5	Italy	ITA	2	3	7	7-11	0.636	203-222	0.914
6	Republic of Korea	KOR	1	4	6	5-14	0.357	200-264	0.758

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	17 Sep 18:45	Sweden	SWE	10-15, 5-15, 15-12, 17-15, 15-4	Republic of Korea	KOR
Match #2	17 Sep	Brazil	BRA	15-7, 15-4, 17-15	Italy	ITA
Match #3	17 Sep	Soviet Union	URS	15-7, 15-9, 15-8	Bulgaria	BUL
Match #4	19 Sep 12:00	Soviet Union	URS	15-8, 15-7, 16-14	Sweden	SWE
Match #5	19 Sep 16:30	Bulgaria	BUL	15-7, 15-8, 15-6	Italy	ITA
Match #6	19 Sep 18:30	Republic of Korea	KOR	19-17, 15-8, 6-15, 11-15, 15-12	Brazil	BRA
Match #7	22 Sep 12:00	Brazil	BRA	13-15, 15-6, 15-12, 15-12	Bulgaria	BUL
Match #8	22 Sep 14:30	Italy	ITA	9-15, 15-6, 12-15, 15-12, 15-3	Sweden	SWE
Match #9	22 Sep 16:30	Soviet Union	URS	15-6, 15-7, 15-13	Republic of Korea	KOR
Match #10	24 Sep 16:30	Brazil	BRA	15-6, 13-15, 15-0, 15-12	Sweden	SWE
Match #11	24 Sep 18:30	Bulgaria	BUL	15-7, 15-10, 15-8	Republic of Korea	KOR
Match #12	24 Sep 20:30	Soviet Union	URS	15-9, 15-9, 12-15, 15-12	Italy	ITA
Match #13	26 Sep 9:45	Italy	ITA	15-10, 15-7, 15-5	Republic of Korea	KOR
Match #14	26 Sep 18:30	Brazil	BRA	12-15, 9-15, 15-8, 15-11, 15-6	Soviet Union	URS
Match #15	26 Sep 20:30	Sweden	SWE	15-11, 15-12, 15-8	Bulgaria	BUL

Group B

Date	17 – 26 September 1988
Format	Round-robin pools.

Pos	Competitors	NOC	Wins	Losses	Points	Sets	Set Ratio	Points	Points Ratio
1	United States	USA	5	0	10	15-3	5.000	263-155	1.697
2	Argentina	ARG	3	2	8	11-7	1.571	209-211	0.991
3	France	FRA	3	2	8	10-7	1.429	222-190	1.168
4	Netherlands	NED	3	2	8	10-7	1.429	202-183	1.104
5	Japan	JPN	1	4	6	5-12	0.417	182-215	0.847
6	Tunisia	TUN	0	5	5	0-15	0.000	101-225	0.449

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	17 Sep 16:30	Netherlands	NED	15-8, 7-15, 15-11, 15-7	France	FRA
Match #2	17 Sep	United States	USA	15-13, 15-2, 15-2	Japan	JPN
Match #3	17 Sep	Argentina	ARG	15-5, 15-11, 15-6	Tunisia	TUN
Match #4	19 Sep 9:45	United States	USA	15-7, 12-15, 15-1, 15-11	Netherlands	NED
Match #5	19 Sep 14:30	France	FRA	15-10, 15-3, 15-9	Tunisia	TUN
Match #6	19 Sep 20:30	Argentina	ARG	15-11, 15-12, 1-15, 15-11	Japan	JPN
Match #7	22 Sep 9:45	United States	USA	11-15, 11-15, 15-4, 17-15, 15-7	Argentina	ARG
Match #8	22 Sep 18:30	France	FRA	10-15, 15-10, 17-15, 15-12	Japan	JPN
Match #9	22 Sep 20:30	Netherlands	NED	15-6, 15-10, 15-5	Tunisia	TUN
Match #10	24 Sep 9:45	United States	USA	17-15, 15-6, 15-13	France	FRA
Match #11	24 Sep 12:00	Japan	JPN	15-4, 15-11, 15-7	Tunisia	TUN
Match #12	24 Sep 14:30	Argentina	ARG	15-11, 15-7, 15-8	Netherlands	NED
Match #13	26 Sep 12:00	France	FRA	15-7, 15-5, 15-5	Argentina	ARG
Match #14	26 Sep 14:30	United States	USA	15-4, 15-6, 15-4	Tunisia	TUN
Match #15	26 Sep 16:30	Netherlands	NED	15-7, 15-4, 15-8	Japan	JPN

Classification Round 9-12

Date	28 September 1988
Format	Classification matches.

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	28 Sep 12:00	Italy	ITA	15-2, 15-2, 15-5	Tunisia	TUN
Match #2	28 Sep 18:00	Japan	JPN	13-15, 6-15, 15-9, 15-13, 15-9	Republic of Korea	KOR

Classification Round 5-8

Date	28 September 1988
Format	Classification matches.

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	28 Sep 9:45	Bulgaria	BUL	15-8, 15-12, 15-11	France	FRA
Match #2	28 Sep 20:30	Netherlands	NED	15-10, 13-15, 8-15, 15-11, 16-14	Sweden	SWE

Semi-Finals

Date	28 – 30 September 1988
Format	Single-elimination.

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	30 Sep 9:45	United States	USA	15-3, 15-5, 15-11	Brazil	BRA
Match #2	30 Sep 20:30	Soviet Union	URS	15-11, 17-15, 15-8	Argentina	ARG

Final Round

Date	30 September – 2 October 1988
Format	Medal round.

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match 1/2	02 Oct 12:00	United States	USA	13-15, 15-10, 15-4, 15-8	Soviet Union	URS
Match 3/4	02 Oct 9:45	Argentina	ARG	15-10, 15-17, 15-8, 12-15, 15-9	Brazil	BRA
Match 5/6	01 Oct 12:00	Netherlands	NED	15-6, 15-8, 15-10	Bulgaria	BUL
Match 7/8	01 Oct 9:45	Sweden	SWE	12-15, 15-5, 8-15, 15-12, 15-12	France	FRA
Match 9/10	30 Sep 18:00	Italy	ITA	15-11, 15-11, 12-15, 13-15, 15-7	Japan	JPN
Match 11/12	30 Sep 12:00	Republic of Korea	KOR	15-11, 15-9, 15-7	Tunisia	TUN