LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The IOC has ratified a change to the beach volleyball qualifying process for the 2012 London Olympics.
Qualifying will be based on national federations rather than individual two-man and two-women teams.
The beach volleyball tournament will consist of 24 pairs per gender. Besides the hosts, the 16 highest-ranked national federations as of June 17, 2012, will be included along with the five winners of the Continental Beach Volleyball Cup and the finalists of the beach volleyball World Cup.
In indoor volleyball, 12 male and female teams will compete. Those include the host team, the top three from the 2011 World Cup, three teams from the Olympic qualification tournaments and one from each continental qualifying tournament.