For the men, the twelve qualified teams were drawn in two groups with six participants each. The preliminary round was held according to the "everyone against everyone" mode. The two best teams in each group met each other in the semi-finals. The remaining teams played from places five to twelve.
For women there were two groups with four participants each. The two best teams in each group met each other in the semi-finals. The remaining teams played from places five to eight.
The games were played in Munich from August 27th to September 9th. The venue was the hall in the Olympic Park.
New rules
The weight of the ball was set at 250 to 280 grams for the first time at the Olympic tournament. Flexible antennas were also installed on the net so that the referees could better see whether a ball was crossing the net within the boundaries of the playing field.
Schedule men
Preliminary round
In Group A, the Soviet Union remained unbeaten with only three lost sets. Bulgaria finished second with four wins. In group B, the two German teams met. In a direct duel, the GDR selection beat the West German team in three sets. The East Germans were also more successful overall. They reached the semi-finals behind Japan, which did not drop a single set, with four wins in second place in the group. The West Germans, however, remained without a win.
The team of the Federal Republic of Germany defeated Tunisia 3-1 in the placement game and finished eleventh. Poland finished ninth after beating Cuba 3-0.
In the semifinals on September 8, the GDR dethroned the defending champion from the Soviet Union, who ultimately only got the bronze medal after his overall victories at the first two Olympic volleyball tournaments. Second in the final were the Japanese, who defeated Bulgaria in five sets. The fight for the gold medal on September 9 was finally decided by Japan with a 3-1 win against the GDR selection.
In Group A, the German women had no chance and did not win a single set. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, won all of their three games and only gave two sets. Two victories were enough for South Korea to reach the semifinals. In group B the Asians dominated. Japan did not give a single sentence, the North Koreans took second place.
The German women also lost both placement games against Cuba and Czechoslovakia 3-0, finishing last. In the semifinals on September 2, Japan won the Asian duel against South Korea, while North Korea was defeated by the Soviet Union. The Koreans met in a duel for bronze, which the women from the north won in three sets. In the game for gold on September 7th between the teams from the USSR and Japan, the decision was made in the tiebreak in favor of the Soviet selection.
After losing the bronze medal, the South Korean team filed a protest claiming North Korean Kim Jung-bok was a man. However, the protest was dismissed because the medical commission had issued the accused player with a femininity certificate. The South Koreans then claimed that their team-mate Han Jong-suk, who had not been included in the Olympic selection, had shown up for the sex test in Kim's place .
Valeri Kravchenko, Yefim Tschulak Vladimir Putjatow Vladimir Patkin, Leonid Saiko, Yuri Starunski Yevgeny Lapinski, Yuri Poyarkov , Vyacheslav Domani, Alexander Saprykin Victor Borstsch Vladimir Kondra
Chun Ok-Ri, Myong Suk-Kim, Zung Bok-Kim, Ok Sun-Kang, Yeun Ja-Kim, He Suk- Hwang, Ok Rim-Jang, Myong Suk-Paek, Chun Ja-Ryom, Su Dae-Kim, Ok Jin-Jong, Chun Ok-Ri
Due to the Olympic tournament in Germany, volleyball experienced a boom. The success of the GDR team and the media presence created a special enthusiasm. The number of volleyball players registered with the German Sports Association rose from 46,000 to 133,000 within four years. The then Romanian setter Stelian Moculescu used the tournament to escape and established himself in the following decades as a successful coach in the volleyball Bundesliga and the German national team.
JPN
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URS
GDR
PKR
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Bulgaria
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Romania
South Korea
Czechoslovakia
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Brazil
Cuba
BR Germany
Hungary
