| | Event type

Volleyball, Men

Date	21 July – 4 August 1996
Status	Olympic
Location	Georgia Coliseum, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia / The Omni Coliseum, Atlanta, Georgia
Participants	141 from 12 countries
Format	Round-robin pools advanced teams to classification matches.

In the now standard format, 12 teams competed, separated into two pools of six, followed by elimination and medal/placement matches. The qualifying teams were selected as follows: host nation (United States), World Cup (Italy, Netherlands, Brazil), Continental Qualifiers (Tunisia, Korea, Russia, Cuba, Argentina), and qualification tournaments (Serbia & Montenegro [Yugoslavia], Bulgaria, Poland).

The two dominant teams in the past four years had been Italy and the Netherlands. Italy had won the 1990 and 1994 World Championships and the 1993 and 1995 European Championships. But they had always been closely pushed by the Dutch team, silver medalists at the 1994 Worlds and both Europeans. The Netherlands had upset Italy in the quarter-finals at the 1992 Olympics and only a few weeks before the 1996 Olympics, defeated them in five sets in the final of the World League tournament in Rotterdam. In pool play, the two teams were drawn together in Group B, and Italy won their match easily in three sets. As expected, they both made it thru to the final, which was a titanic struggle. It went five sets, with the teams alternating set victories. The final set was very close, and Italy got to 15-14 and match point, but the Netherlands scored three straight points to win the gold medal, 17-15. All three medalists came out of Group B, as Serbia & Montenegro (Yugoslavia) defeated Russia in five sets to win the bronze medal, their ever volleyball medal. They missed their team captain, Dejan Brđović, for several matches, including the bronze medal match, as he left the team after his son died from a brain tumor.

In 1985, the Dutch started a program unique in the Netherlands, in which the entire national team would train together, not playing in the standard Dutch competitions. Named after their base (the Bankras hall), the goal of the “Bankrasmodel” was to win Olympic gold in 1992. After some initial success (a surprising fifth-place in 1988), the team fell apart, with various players signing lucrative contracts abroad, and coach Arie Selinger leaving the team. They all rejoined for the Barcelona Games and, after a poor start, upset Italy and Cuba to win a silver medal. With a new coach (Joop Alberda), they became a consistent force, but always finished behind Italy, until the 1996 Olympics. In 1999, Dutch TV viewers elected the gold medal in Atlanta as the “sporting moment of the 20th century.”

Pos	Number	Team	NOC	Matches Played	Wins	Losses	Points	Sets	Set Ratio	Points	Points Ratio	Side Outs
1	–	Netherlands	NED	8	7	1	15	21-6	3.500	375-269	1.394	–	Gold
	1	Misha Latuhihin		2	–	–	2	–-–	–	–-–	–	1
	3	Henk Jan Held		8	–	–	37	–-–	–	–-–	–	97
	4	Brecht Rodenburg		3	–	–	1	–-–	–	–-–	–	5
	5	Guido Görtzen		8	–	–	37	–-–	–	–-–	–	93
	6	Richard Schuil		7	–	–	5	–-–	–	–-–	–	10
	8	Ron Zwerver		8	–	–	63	–-–	–	–-–	–	75
	9	Bas van de Goor		8	–	–	46	–-–	–	–-–	–	131
	10	Jan Posthuma		7	–	–	3	–-–	–	–-–	–	12
	11	Olof van der Meulen		8	–	–	77	–-–	–	–-–	–	144
	12	Peter Blangé		8	–	–	17	–-–	–	–-–	–	20
	13	Rob Grabert		5	–	–	1	–-–	–	–-–	–	0
	15	Mike van de Goor		2	–	–	0	–-–	–	–-–	–	0
Coach		Joop Alberda
2	–	Italy	ITA	8	7	1	15	23-5	4.600	406-279	1.455	–	Silver
	1	Andrea Gardini		8	–	–	34	–-–	–	–-–	–	106
	2	Marco Meoni		8	–	–	10	–-–	–	–-–	–	2
	3	Pasquale Gravina		8	–	–	22	–-–	–	–-–	–	43
	5	Paolo Tofoli		5	–	–	2	–-–	–	–-–	–	1
	6	Samuele Papi		8	–	–	42	–-–	–	–-–	–	62
	7	Andrea Sartoretti		8	–	–	12	–-–	–	–-–	–	17
	8	Marco Bracci		6	–	–	8	–-–	–	–-–	–	15
	9	Lorenzo Bernardi		8	–	–	63	–-–	–	–-–	–	105
	10	Luca Cantagalli		8	–	–	21	–-–	–	–-–	–	58
	11	Andrea Zorzi		3	–	–	3	–-–	–	–-–	–	6
	13	Andrea Giani		7	–	–	65	–-–	–	–-–	–	145
	16	Vigor Bovolenta		7	–	–	16	–-–	–	–-–	–	42
Coach		Julio Velasco
3	–	Yugoslavia	SCG	8	5	3	13	16-14	1.143	374-336	1.113	–	Bronze
	1	Đorđe Đurić		5	–	–	16	–-–	–	–-–	–	60
	2	Žarko Petrović		8	–	–	14	–-–	–	–-–	–	47
	3	Vladimir Batez		8	–	–	32	–-–	–	–-–	–	108
	4	Željko Tanasković		8	–	–	43	–-–	–	–-–	–	46
	5	Dejan Brđović		3	–	–	10	–-–	–	–-–	–	28
	7	Đula Mešter		8	–	–	18	–-–	–	–-–	–	47
	8	Slobodan Kovač		8	–	–	30	–-–	–	–-–	–	52
	9	Nikola Grbić		7	–	–	29	–-–	–	–-–	–	14
	10	Vladimir Grbić		7	–	–	54	–-–	–	–-–	–	125
	11	Rajko Jokanović		3	–	–	0	–-–	–	–-–	–	11
	12	Andrija Gerić		3	–	–	23	–-–	–	–-–	–	57
	13	Goran Vujević		8	–	–	25	–-–	–	–-–	–	54
Coach		Zoran Gajić
4	–	Russian Federation	RUS	8	3	5	11	11-15	0.733	305-337	0.905	–
	1	Oleg Shatunov		8	–	–	31	–-–	–	–-–	–	50
	2	Vadim Khamuttskikh		8	–	–	14	–-–	–	–-–	–	8
	3	Sergey Orlenko		2	–	–	0	–-–	–	–-–	–	6
	4	Ruslan Olikhver		5	–	–	7	–-–	–	–-–	–	30
	7	Aleksey Kazakov		8	–	–	7	–-–	–	–-–	–	4
	8	Dmitry Fomin		6	–	–	45	–-–	–	–-–	–	126
	9	Sergey Tetyukhin		7	–	–	9	–-–	–	–-–	–	28
	10	Pavel Shishkin		8	–	–	30	–-–	–	–-–	–	72
	11	Konstantin Ushakov		6	–	–	6	–-–	–	–-–	–	4
	12	Stanislav Dineykin		8	–	–	39	–-–	–	–-–	–	138
	13	Igor Shulepov		8	–	–	28	–-–	–	–-–	–	83
	17	Valery Goryushev		7	–	–	17	–-–	–	–-–	–	59
Coach		Vyacheslav Platonov
5	–	Brazil	BRA	8	5	3	13	18-10	1.800	367-331	1.109	–
	1	Marcelo Negrão		6	–	–	24	–-–	–	–-–	–	70
	2	Cássio Pereira		4	–	–	1	–-–	–	–-–	–	0
	3	Giovane		8	–	–	72	–-–	–	–-–	–	155
	5	Paulão		7	–	–	11	–-–	–	–-–	–	30
	6	Maurício		8	–	–	8	–-–	–	–-–	–	12
	8	Pinha		8	–	–	20	–-–	–	–-–	–	93
	10	Max		6	–	–	21	–-–	–	–-–	–	33
	12	Nalbert		7	–	–	6	–-–	–	–-–	–	16
	14	Tande		8	–	–	86	–-–	–	–-–	–	122
	16	Gilsão Mão-de-Pilão		3	–	–	5	–-–	–	–-–	–	19
	18	Carlos Schwanke		8	–	–	25	–-–	–	–-–	–	39
	9	Carlão DNS		–	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
Coach		Zé Roberto
6	–	Cuba	CUB	8	5	3	13	15-15	1.000	356-347	1.026	–
	1	Freddy Brooks		7	–	–	51	–-–	–	–-–	–	94
	2	Nicolás Vives		4	–	–	3	–-–	–	–-–	–	1
	3	Ricardo Vantes		8	–	–	1	–-–	–	–-–	–	3
	4	Joël Despaigne		8	–	–	36	–-–	–	–-–	–	118
	8	Rodolfo Sánchez		5	–	–	20	–-–	–	–-–	–	34
	9	Raúl Diago		8	–	–	34	–-–	–	–-–	–	9
	11	Osvaldo Hernández		8	–	–	41	–-–	–	–-–	–	123
	13	Alaín Roca		8	–	–	41	–-–	–	–-–	–	55
	14	Ihosvany Hernández		8	–	–	41	–-–	–	–-–	–	104
	15	Ángel Beltrán		6	–	–	1	–-–	–	–-–	–	0
	17	Alexis Batle		3	–	–	9	–-–	–	–-–	–	22
	18	Lázaro Marín		4	–	–	5	–-–	–	–-–	–	12
Coach		Juan Jesús Díaz
7	–	Bulgaria	BUL	8	4	4	12	15-16	0.938	379-396	0.957	–
	1	Martin Stoev		7	–	–	41	–-–	–	–-–	–	82
	2	Lyudmil Naydenov		8	–	–	9	–-–	–	–-–	–	15
	4	Lyubomir Ganev		8	–	–	47	–-–	–	–-–	–	136
	6	Dimo Tonev		7	–	–	29	–-–	–	–-–	–	49
	7	Nikolay Zhelyazkov		8	–	–	60	–-–	–	–-–	–	108
	8	Plamen Hristov		7	–	–	3	–-–	–	–-–	–	5
	10	Petar Uzunov		8	–	–	7	–-–	–	–-–	–	27
	11	Nayden Naydenov		7	–	–	31	–-–	–	–-–	–	80
	12	Nikolay Ivanov		6	–	–	13	–-–	–	–-–	–	10
	13	Ivaylo Gavrilov		8	–	–	20	–-–	–	–-–	–	51
	16	Evgeni Ivanov		4	–	–	7	–-–	–	–-–	–	18
	17	Plamen Konstantinov		5	–	–	16	–-–	–	–-–	–	32
Coach		Bogdan Kyuchukov
8	–	Argentina	ARG	8	3	5	11	13-18	0.722	362-404	0.896	–
	1	Marcos Milinkovic		8	–	–	75	–-–	–	–-–	–	156
	2	Jorge Alberto Elgueta		8	–	–	41	–-–	–	–-–	–	72
	3	Sebastián Jabif		8	–	–	31	–-–	–	–-–	–	85
	4	Leandro Maly		8	–	–	18	–-–	–	–-–	–	35
	5	Guillermo Quaini		8	–	–	25	–-–	–	–-–	–	60
	6	Carlos Weber		8	–	–	7	–-–	–	–-–	–	15
	7	Fernando Borrero		7	–	–	9	–-–	–	–-–	–	46
	8	Alejandro Romanó		8	–	–	15	–-–	–	–-–	–	71
	9	Sebastián Firpo		5	–	–	2	–-–	–	–-–	–	0
	12	Pablo Pereira		8	–	–	31	–-–	–	–-–	–	67
	13	Guillermo Martínez		7	–	–	4	–-–	–	–-–	–	10
	14	Eduardo Rodríguez		7	–	–	4	–-–	–	–-–	–	13
Coach		Daniel Castellani
=9	–	United States	USA	5	2	3	7	10-9	1.111	241-233	1.034	–
	1	Lloy Ball		5	–	–	13	–-–	–	–-–	–	8
	3	John Hyden		2	–	–	13	–-–	–	–-–	–	14
	4	Bob Ctvrtlik		5	–	–	21	–-–	–	–-–	–	37
	5	Bryan Ivie		5	–	–	29	–-–	–	–-–	–	77
	6	Tom Sorensen		3	–	–	17	–-–	–	–-–	–	29
	8	Scott Fortune		2	–	–	4	–-–	–	–-–	–	5
	10	Jeff Stork		2	–	–	1	–-–	–	–-–	–	2
	13	Jeff Nygaard		5	–	–	33	–-–	–	–-–	–	51
	14	Mike Lambert		5	–	–	36	–-–	–	–-–	–	68
	16	Dan Landry		5	–	–	15	–-–	–	–-–	–	41
	17	Brett Winslow		2	–	–	0	–-–	–	–-–	–	2
	15	Ethan Watts DNS		–	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
Coach		Fred Sturm
=9	–	Republic of Korea	KOR	5	1	4	6	3-12	0.250	156-198	0.788	–
	2	Im Do-Heon		5	–	–	14	–-–	–	–-–	–	42
	3	Kim Se-Jin		5	–	–	25	–-–	–	–-–	–	79
	5	Sin Yeong-Cheol		4	–	–	2	–-–	–	–-–	–	2
	6	Bang Sin-Bong		5	–	–	7	–-–	–	–-–	–	16
	7	Kim Sang-U		5	–	–	20	–-–	–	–-–	–	58
	8	Ha Jong-Hwa		2	–	–	6	–-–	–	–-–	–	3
	11	Choi Cheon-Sik		4	–	–	3	–-–	–	–-–	–	13
	12	Park Hui-Sang		5	–	–	9	–-–	–	–-–	–	57
	13	Lee Seong-Hui		3	–	–	3	–-–	–	–-–	–	1
	14	Sin Jeong-Seop		1	–	–	0	–-–	–	–-–	–	0
	15	Sin Jin-Sik		5	–	–	21	–-–	–	–-–	–	49
	17	Park Seon-Chul		1	–	–	1	–-–	–	–-–	–	3
Coach		Song Man-Duk
=11	–	Poland	POL	5	0	5	5	1-12	0.083	168-217	0.774	–
	1	Andrzej Stelmach		5	–	–	3	–-–	–	–-–	–	5
	2	Damian Dacewicz		5	–	–	6	–-–	–	–-–	–	37
	3	Krzysztof Stelmach		5	–	–	27	–-–	–	–-–	–	61
	4	Mariusz Szyszko		5	–	–	1	–-–	–	–-–	–	1
	5	Marcin Nowak		5	–	–	12	–-–	–	–-–	–	28
	6	Piotr Gruszka		5	–	–	15	–-–	–	–-–	–	70
	8	Krzysztof Śmigiel		5	–	–	16	–-–	–	–-–	–	27
	9	Leszek Urbanowicz		5	–	–	4	–-–	–	–-–	–	17
	12	Witold Roman		5	–	–	3	–-–	–	–-–	–	32
	14	Paweł Zagumny		4	–	–	2	–-–	–	–-–	–	5
	19	Krzysztof Janczak		4	–	–	3	–-–	–	–-–	–	23
	7	Robert Prygiel DNS		–	–	–	–	–-–	–	–-–	–	–
Coach		Wiktor Krebok
=11	–	Tunisia	TUN	5	0	5	5	1-15	0.067	98-240	0.408	–
	1	Ghazi Koubaa		5	–	–	10	–-–	–	–-–	–	19
	2	Riadh Hedhili		5	–	–	7	–-–	–	–-–	–	17
	4	Mohamed Baghdadi		5	–	–	17	–-–	–	–-–	–	86
	7	Riadh Ghandri		5	–	–	13	–-–	–	–-–	–	47
	8	Atif Loukil		3	–	–	7	–-–	–	–-–	–	28
	9	Khaled Bel Aïd		5	–	–	9	–-–	–	–-–	–	26
	10	Hichem Ben Romdhane		5	–	–	0	–-–	–	–-–	–	0
	11	Tarek Aouni		4	–	–	2	–-–	–	–-–	–	2
	12	Faycal Ben Amara		2	–	–	3	–-–	–	–-–	–	9
	13	Noureddine Hfaiedh		1	–	–	0	–-–	–	–-–	–	10
	15	Ghazi Guidara		2	–	–	3	–-–	–	–-–	–	2
	18	Majdi Toumi		1	–	–	2	–-–	–	–-–	–	14
Coach		Fathi M'kaouar

Preliminary Round

Date	21 – 29 July 1996

Group A

Date	21 – 29 July 1996
Format	Round-robin pools.

Pos	Competitors	NOC	Wins	Losses	Points	Sets	Set Ratio	Points	Points Ratio
1	Cuba	CUB	4	1	9	12-5	2.400	233-191	1.220
2	Brazil	BRA	3	2	8	10-6	1.667	210-187	1.123
3	Bulgaria	BUL	3	2	8	10-8	1.250	225-212	1.061
4	Argentina	ARG	3	2	8	9-9	1.000	222-225	0.987
5	United States	USA	2	3	7	10-9	1.111	241-233	1.034
6	Poland	POL	0	5	5	1-15	0.067	151-234	0.645

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	21 Jul 19:10	Cuba	CUB	15-9, 15-7, 15-7	Bulgaria	BUL
Match #2	21 Jul 19:30	United States	USA	15-13, 15-6, 15-8	Poland	POL
Match #3	21 Jul 22:00	Argentina	ARG	9-15, 15-8, 16-14, 15-6	Brazil	BRA
Match #4	23 Jul 12:30	Bulgaria	BUL	15-11, 15-13, 15-8	Brazil	BRA
Match #5	23 Jul 16:00	United States	USA	15-7, 15-8, 15-11	Argentina	ARG
Match #6	23 Jul 22:00	Cuba	CUB	15-13, 15-2, 15-13	Poland	POL
Match #7	25 Jul 10:00	Argentina	ARG	15-10, 15-8, 11-15, 15-10	Bulgaria	BUL
Match #8	25 Jul 16:00	Brazil	BRA	15-7, 15-11, 15-8	Poland	POL
Match #9	25 Jul 19:30	Cuba	CUB	4-15, 15-9, 14-16, 15-8, 18-16	United States	USA
Match #10	27 Jul 16:00	Cuba	CUB	15-10, 15-12, 15-9	Argentina	ARG
Match #11	27 Jul 18:30	Bulgaria	BUL	15-4, 15-10, 15-7	Poland	POL
Match #12	27 Jul 19:30	Brazil	BRA	15-11, 15-11, 15-7	United States	USA
Match #13	29 Jul 10:00	Argentina	ARG	7-15, 17-15, 15-10, 15-9	Poland	POL
Match #14	29 Jul 19:30	Bulgaria	BUL	15-11, 13-15, 11-15, 15-5, 15-12	United States	USA
Match #15	29 Jul 22:40	Brazil	BRA	15-11, 15-10, 15-11	Cuba	CUB

Group B

Date	21 – 29 July 1996
Format	Round-robin pools.

Pos	Competitors	NOC	Wins	Losses	Points	Sets	Set Ratio	Points	Points Ratio
1	Italy	ITA	5	0	10	15-0	∞	225-138	1.630
2	Netherlands	NED	4	1	9	12-3	4.000	209-131	1.595
3	Yugoslavia	SCG	3	2	8	9-8	1.125	215-191	1.126
4	Russian Federation	RUS	2	3	7	7-9	0.778	181-216	0.838
5	Republic of Korea	KOR	1	4	6	3-12	0.250	156-198	0.788
6	Tunisia	TUN	0	5	5	1-15	0.067	113-225	0.502

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	21 Jul 10:00	Netherlands	NED	15-4, 15-4, 15-2	Tunisia	TUN
Match #2	21 Jul 12:30	Italy	ITA	15-13, 15-12, 15-8	Republic of Korea	KOR
Match #3	21 Jul 16:00	Yugoslavia	SCG	10-15, 15-13, 15-10, 15-11	Russian Federation	RUS
Match #4	23 Jul 10:00	Netherlands	NED	15-9, 15-9, 15-9	Russian Federation	RUS
Match #5	23 Jul 18:30	Italy	ITA	15-9, 15-5, 15-1	Tunisia	TUN
Match #6	23 Jul 19:30	Yugoslavia	SCG	15-5, 15-6, 16-14	Republic of Korea	KOR
Match #7	25 Jul 12:35	Italy	ITA	15-8, 15-8, 15-13	Netherlands	NED
Match #8	25 Jul 18:30	Yugoslavia	SCG	15-4, 15-17, 15-3, 15-3	Tunisia	TUN
Match #9	25 Jul 22:30	Russian Federation	RUS	15-8, 15-4, 16-14	Republic of Korea	KOR
Match #10	27 Jul 10:00	Italy	ITA	15-11, 15-6, 15-12	Russian Federation	RUS
Match #11	27 Jul 12:30	Netherlands	NED	15-7, 15-6, 15-9	Yugoslavia	SCG
Match #12	27 Jul 22:00	Republic of Korea	KOR	15-4, 15-6, 15-6	Tunisia	TUN
Match #13	29 Jul 12:55	Italy	ITA	15-12, 15-8, 15-12	Yugoslavia	SCG
Match #14	29 Jul 16:00	Russian Federation	RUS	15-9, 15-10, 15-11	Tunisia	TUN
Match #15	29 Jul 18:30	Netherlands	NED	15-4, 15-11, 15-12	Republic of Korea	KOR

Quarter-Finals

Date	31 July 1996
Format	Single-elimination.

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	31 Jul 13:30	Yugoslavia	SCG	15-6, 15-5, 8-15, 14-16, 15-10	Brazil	BRA
Match #2	31 Jul 16:40	Netherlands	NED	16-14, 9-15, 15-3, 15-13	Bulgaria	BUL
Match #3	31 Jul 19:30	Italy	ITA	12-15, 15-9, 15-7, 15-4	Argentina	ARG
Match #4	31 Jul 22:00	Russian Federation	RUS	15-13, 17-15, 15-11	Cuba	CUB

Classification Round 5-8

Date	1 August 1996
Format	Classification matches.

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	01 Aug 8:00	Brazil	BRA	15-10, 15-3, 13-15, 15-9	Argentina	ARG
Match #2	01 Aug 10:55	Cuba	CUB	15-4, 15-12, 16-17, 15-12	Bulgaria	BUL

Semi-Finals

Date	1 – 2 August 1996
Format	Single-elimination.

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	02 Aug 19:30	Netherlands	NED	15-6, 15-6, 15-10	Russian Federation	RUS
Match #2	02 Aug 22:00	Italy	ITA	15-12, 8-15, 15-6, 15-7	Yugoslavia	SCG

Final Round

Date	2 – 4 August 1996
Format	Medal round.

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match 1/2	04 Aug 14:35	Netherlands	NED	15-12, 9-15, 16-14, 9-15, 17-15	Italy	ITA
Match 3/4	04 Aug 12:00	Yugoslavia	SCG	15-8, 7-15, 15-8, 15-9	Russian Federation	RUS
Match 5/6	02 Aug 14:40	Brazil	BRA	15-12, 16-14, 16-14	Cuba	CUB
Match 7/8	02 Aug 12:00	Bulgaria	BUL	15-10, 15-10, 7-15, 7-15, 20-18	Argentina	ARG