Invented in 1895 at the Holyoke, Massachusetts YMCA by William G Morgan, the expansion of volleyball traces global interests in the twentieth century. Taken up in the Philippines and Cuba when these were colonies, volleyball was played by soldiers on the western front after the United States joined the First World War. It expanded through out Asia and into Latin America, often through the YMCAs, between the wars; during the Second World War further expansion occurred from the South Pacific to Western Europe.

At the Tokyo games in 1964, volleyball was accepted as an Olympic sport, with the Soviet Union winning among the men and the Japanese winning among the women.

Since then Latin American teams like Brazil have grown in stature, while the end of the Cold War led to a decline in East European teams and a rise in American fortunes.

For many Americans, volleyball means the beach. This game is played informally at all resorts around the country but recently has become a major televised sport, with its base in California. In the early 1920s, courts were put up at Santa Monica, and volleyball quickly became a popular recreational sport, sometimes associated with European nudist camps. By the 1950s, tournaments were held regularly at five beaches in California, and the sport became linked to surfing and teenage culture. Since 1974, when Winston cigarettes sponsored a tournament in San Diego, beach volleyball has been a commercial sport. In 1986 professional beach volleyball made its network debut on ABC’s Wide World of Sports and, at the Atlanta Games in 1996, beach volleyball became an Olympic sport. It is still dominated largely by Californians, like Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes among the men, and Karolyn Kirby and Liz Masakayan among the women.