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 best four teams in each group reached the quarter-finals. Then it went on in the simple knockout system until the final.
For women there were two groups with four participants each. The group winners reached the semifinals directly, while the runners-up and thirds played out two more semi-finalists.
The games were played in Barcelona from July 26th to August 9th. The venues were Palau d'Esports, Pavelló de la Vall d'Hebron and Palau Sant Jordi.
Schedule men
Preliminary round
In Group A, Italy finished first ahead of the Americans despite their final loss to the USA. Spain reached the quarter-finals with three 3-2 victories, for which Japan also qualified.
Group B was dominated by Brazil with only two sets. Cuba won four out of five games. In addition, the United Team of the Soviet successor states and the Netherlands made it to the quarter-finals.
South Korea (3-1 in the placement game against Canada) finished ninth overall, France (3-0 against Algeria) finished eleventh.
In the quarter-finals on August 5, the Netherlands were the only Europeans to qualify for the semi-finals with a narrow win against Italy (17:16 in the tie-break). All other semi-finalists came from the American continent. In the semi-finals on August 7th, the Brazilians defeated the defending champions USA, who then won bronze against Cuba. Brazil won the final against the Netherlands on August 9th in three sets.
Japan (3-1 in the placement game against the Netherlands) took fifth place. China (3-0 against Spain) finished seventh.
In the quarter-finals on August 4th, the two runners-up USA and Brazil prevailed. Both teams were eliminated in the semi-finals on August 6th. Cuba won the NORCECA duel against the US team, which later took bronze. The South Americans failed at the defending champion (then Soviet Union). In the final, Cuba triumphed over the United Team.
Jorge Edson Brito, Janelson Carvalho, Douglas Chiarotti, Andre Felippe Ferreira, Giovane Gávio , Antonio Carlos Gouveia, Maurício Lima , Marcelo Negrao, Talmo Oliveira, Amauri Ribeiro, Tande , Paulo Andre Silva
Nick Adrian Becker, Carlos Martin Briceno, Robert Ctvrtlik , Scott Thomas Fortune, Daniel Robert Greenbaum, Brent William Hilliard, Bryan Eric Ivie, Robert Douglas Partie, Robert Lewis Samuelson, Eric Sato, Jeffrey Stork , Steve Timmons
.png)
Netherlands
Italy
Cuba
Spain
Brazil
Japan
United States
United team
