Volleyball at the 2020 Summer Olympics

The qualification for the 2020 women's Olympic volleyball tournament allocated twelve teams quota spots: the host, the winners of each of six Intercontinental Qualifying Tournaments, and five continental Olympic qualification tournament champions.^[1] Teams already qualified for the event were not eligible to play in the following qualification tournaments. The 2020 Olympics were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[2]

Qualification summary

Event		Dates	Venue(s)	Quota	Qualifier(s)
Host nation^[3]		—		1	Japan
Intercontinental Qualifier	Pool A	1–4 August 2019	Wrocław	1	Serbia
	Pool B		Ningbo	1	China
	Pool C		Bossier City	1	United States
	Pool D		Uberlândia	1	Brazil
	Pool E		Kaliningrad	1	ROC
	Pool F		Catania	1	Italy
African Qualifier		5–9 January 2020	Yaoundé	1	Kenya
South American Qualifier		7–9 January 2020	Bogotá	1	Argentina
Asian Qualifier		7–12 January 2020	Nakhon Ratchasima	1	South Korea
European Qualifier		7–12 January 2020	Apeldoorn	1	Turkey
North American Qualifier		10–12 January 2020	Santo Domingo	1	Dominican Republic
Total				12

Timeline

Confederation	Tournament		Dates	Venue	Teams
FIVB (Intercontinental)	FIVB Tokyo Volleyball Qualification	Pool A	2–4 August 2019	Wrocław	4
		Pool B	2–4 August 2019	Ningbo	4
		Pool C	2–4 August 2019	Bossier City	4
		Pool D	1–3 August 2019	Uberlândia	4
		Pool E	2–4 August 2019	Kaliningrad	4
		Pool F	2–4 August 2019	Catania	4
CAVB (Africa)	CAVB Tokyo Volleyball Qualification		5–9 January 2020	Yaoundé	5
AVC (Asia and Oceania)	Asian Championship		17–25 August 2019	Seoul	11+2
AVC (Asia and Oceania)	AVC Tokyo Volleyball Qualification		7–12 January 2020	Nakhon Ratchasima	7
CEV (Europe)	CEV Tokyo Volleyball Qualification		7–12 January 2020	Apeldoorn	8
NORCECA (North America)	NORCECA Champions Cup		22–24 August 2019	Colorado Springs	4
	NORCECA Championship		8–13 October 2019	San Juan	8
	NORCECA Tokyo Volleyball Qualification		10–12 January 2020	Santo Domingo	4
CSV (South America)	South American Championship		28 August–1 September 2019	Cajamarca	8
CSV (South America)	CSV Tokyo Volleyball Qualification		7–9 January 2020	Bogotá	4

Pool standing procedure

For all qualification tournaments except North American qualification tournament

Total number of victories (matches won, matches lost)
In the event of a tie, the following first tiebreaker will apply: The teams will be ranked by the most point gained per match as follows:
- Match won 3–0 or 3–1: 3 points for the winner, 0 points for the loser
- Match won 3–2: 2 points for the winner, 1 point for the loser
- Match forfeited: 3 points for the winner, 0 points (0–25, 0–25, 0–25) for the loser
If teams are still tied after examining the number of victories and points gained, then the FIVB will examine the results in order to break the tie in the following order:
- Set quotient: if two or more teams are tied on the number of points gained, they will be ranked by the quotient resulting from the division of the number of all set won by the number of all sets lost.
- Points quotient: if the tie persists based on the set quotient, the teams will be ranked by the quotient resulting from the division of all points scored by the total of points lost during all sets.
- If the tie persists based on the point quotient, the tie will be broken based on the team that won the match of the Round Robin Phase between the tied teams. When the tie in point quotient is between three or more teams, these teams ranked taking into consideration only the matches involving the teams in question.

For North American qualification tournament only

Number of matches won
Match points
Points ratio
Sets ratio
Result of the last match between the tied teams

Match won 3–0: 5 match points for the winner, 0 match points for the loser
Match won 3–1: 4 match points for the winner, 1 match point for the loser
Match won 3–2: 3 match points for the winner, 2 match points for the loser

Host country

FIVB reserved a vacancy for the 2020 Olympic Games host country to participate in the tournament.

Japan

Intercontinental Olympic Qualification Tournaments

The winners in each pool will qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games.

Qualification round

Twenty-four teams qualified for the competition as the top twenty-four teams of FIVB World Rankings on 1 January 2019 (except Japan who qualified as host.).^[4]^[5]

	Qualified to 2019 FIVB IOQT
	Qualified but withdrew
	2020 Summer Olympics host country

Seeding	Team	WC 2015	OG 2016	WGP 2017	WCH 2018	Total
1	Serbia	90	90	42	100	322
2	China	100	100	40	80	320
3	United States	80	80	38	58	256
4	Brazil	50	50	50	50	200
5	Russia	70	50	28	50	198
–	Japan	50	50	32	58	190
6	Netherlands	0	70	38	70	178
7	Italy	0	30	45	90	165
8	South Korea	40	50	18	30	138
9	Dominican Republic	30	3	30	45	108
10	Argentina	25	30	8	30	93
11	Turkey	0	3	24	45	72
12	Puerto Rico	0	20	14	36	70
13	Thailand	0	3	26	36	65
14	Germany	0	2	17	40	59
15	Bulgaria	0	0	15	40	55
16	Cameroon	0	20	2	25	47
17	Canada	0	2	12	30	44
18	Belgium	0	2	22	18	42
19	Kenya	5	0	2	30	37
20	Mexico	0	0	2	33	35
21	Azerbaijan	0	0	0	33	33
22	Kazakhstan	0	1	6	25	32
23	Czech Republic	0	0	16	15	31
–	Cuba	5	0	0	25	30
24	Poland	0	1	20	8	29

Qualified teams

Teams were seeded following the serpentine system according to their FIVB World Ranking as of 1 January 2019.^[4]^[6] Rankings are shown in brackets.

Pool A	Pool B	Pool C	Pool D	Pool E	Pool F
Serbia (1)	China (2) (H)	United States (3) (H)	Brazil (4) (H)	Russia (5) (H)	Netherlands (7)
Puerto Rico (13)	Turkey (12)	Argentina (11)	Dominican Republic (10)	South Korea (9)	Italy (8) (H)
Thailand (14)	Germany (15)	Bulgaria (16)	Cameroon (17)	Canada (18)	Belgium (19)
Poland (26) (H)	Czech Republic (24)	Kazakhstan (23)	Azerbaijan (22)	Mexico (21)	Kenya (20)

Notes

Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament.
(H): Qualification group hosts

Final round

Means of qualification

	Qualified for the 2020 Olympic Games

Pool A

Pos	Team	Pld	Pts
1	Serbia (Q)	3	9
2	Poland (H)	3	5
3	Thailand	3	4
4	Puerto Rico	3	0

Source: FIVB
(H) Host; (Q) Qualified for the phase indicated

Pool B

Pos	Team	Pld	Pts
1	China (H, Q)	3	9
2	Turkey	3	6
3	Germany	3	3
4	Czech Republic	3	0

Source: FIVB
(H) Host; (Q) Qualified for the phase indicated

Pool C

Pos	Team	Pld	Pts
1	United States (H, Q)	3	8
2	Bulgaria	3	7
3	Argentina	3	3
4	Kazakhstan	3	0

Source: FIVB
(H) Host; (Q) Qualified for the phase indicated

Pool D

Pos	Team	Pld	Pts
1	Brazil (H, Q)	3	7
2	Dominican Republic	3	7
3	Azerbaijan	3	4
4	Cameroon	3	0

Source: FIVB
(H) Host; (Q) Qualified for the phase indicated

Pool E

Pos	Team	Pld	Pts
1	Russia (H, Q)	3	8
2	South Korea	3	7
3	Canada	3	3
4	Mexico	3	0

Source: FIVB
(H) Host; (Q) Qualified for the phase indicated

Pool F

Pos	Team	Pld	Pts
1	Italy (H, Q)	3	9
2	Netherlands	3	6
3	Belgium	3	3
4	Kenya	3	0

Source: FIVB
(H) Host; (Q) Qualified for the phase indicated

Continental Olympic Qualification Tournaments

Africa

Of the 5 entered teams, only winner of this round was qualified to the 2020 Olympics.

Means of qualification

	Qualified for the 2020 Olympic Games

Round robin

Pos	Team	Pld	Pts
1	Kenya (Q)	4	11
2	Cameroon (H)	4	10
3	Egypt	4	6
4	Nigeria	4	3
5	Botswana	4	0

Source: FIVB
(H) Host; (Q) Qualified for the phase indicated

Asia and Oceania

The winners in final round will qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games.

Qualified teams

Of the 61 AVC and IOC member associations, a total of 13 AVC member national teams entered the qualifying stage

Qualification round

Pool A	Pool B
South Korea (H)	Japan
Iran	Kazakhstan
Hong Kong	Australia
	India
Pool C	Pool D
Thailand	China
Chinese Taipei	Sri Lanka
New Zealand	Indonesia

Final round

Pool A	Pool B
Thailand (H)	South Korea
Chinese Taipei	Kazakhstan
Australia	Iran
	Indonesia

Notes

Teams in bold qualified for the next phase and final tournament.
(H): Qualification group hosts