Beijing Olympics: Japan Men's and Women's National Volleyball Teams

Well, so far the men's team are winless, having just lost a five-setter to host China late last night and still have the undefeated U.S. team and a winless Venezuela. The women are 2-1, their only loss coming to the U.S. but still have undefeated Cuba and the host team in their way to the elimination round.

It looks like the men are statistically out of it. They would need to win their last two matches and have either Italy, Bulgaria or China lose all their remaining matches. And even then, I don't know what the tie-breaker would be.

The women are on better ground. If they win one more match, I believe they're in although it wouldn't hurt if Poland and Venezuela keep losing.

But hey, I don't think that people are coming here looking for results. They're looking for the pretty pretty pictures. Well, rather than right click a bunch of Reuters photos, I'll just point people in the right direction:

Japan Volleyball Association Men's Senior Team
Japan Volleyball Association Women's Senior Team
Both teams at the Mainichi Daily News
Yahoo Japan's Beijing Volleyball Photo Gallery
A lot of players play in the V. League, Japan's highest level of pro volleyball
Photo gallery of the Women's Team
Men's team member Takahiro Yamamoto
Men's team member Yu Koshikawa
Miyuki Takahashi (Shin) Livedoor photo gallery
Megumi Kurihara (Princess Megu)'s Blog
More Women's photos at Sponichi
Nikan Sports Photo gallery

By the way, Japan volleyball keeps the Japanese tradition of naming their national teams after their current coaches. Thus Japanese announcers may refer to the Women's team as Yanagimoto Japan for their coach, Shoichi Yanagimoto. Likewise, the men are Ueta Japa for coach Tatsuya Ueta.

Japan Women's National Volleyball Team qualifies for Beijing Olympics

(photo shamelessly stolen from Megumi Kurihara's blog)

The Japan Women's National Volleyball Team beat their Asian rivals South Korea 25-20, 25-19, 21-25, 25-13 to clinch a berth to the Beijing Olympics. The women placed 5th in the 2004 Olympics and the team is currently ranked 8th in the world. Japan won the gold in '64 and '76 but haven't placed in the top three at the Olympics since 1984. The sport has seen a sort of resurgence in popularity in Japan as of late and recent tournaments involving the team have been broadcast during Golden Time.

Some of the popularity of the women's team is due in part to the team's young stars such as Megumi Kurihara 栗原恵 (Princess Megu プリンセス・メグ) and the way the team is marketed. Several team members have only their given names printed on their uniforms and some go by nicknames (Miyuki Takahashi 高橋みゆき goes by the name Shin). Kurihara, who graduated from high school in Hofu City, Yamaguchi, is extensively featured on the covers of volleyball magazines.

Volleyball at the Beijing Olympics will be held from August 9, 2008 to August 24, 2008