Beach volleyball, or sand volleyball, is an Olympic team sport played by two teams of two players on a sand court divided by a net.

As in indoor volleyball, the object of the game is to send the ball over the net in order to ground it on the opponent's court, and to prevent the same effort by the opponent. A team is allowed up to three touches to return the ball. The ball is put in play with a service—a hit by the server from behind the rear court boundary over the net to the opponents. The rally continues until the ball is grounded on the playing court, goes "out", or is not returned properly.

The team winning a rally scores a point (Rally Point System), and serves to start the following rally. The four players serve in the same sequence throughout the match, changing server each time a rally is won by the receiving team.

Originating in the US states of California (Southern California) and Hawaii, beach volleyball has achieved worldwide popularity.

In 1920, new jetties in Santa Monica, California created a large sandy area for public enjoyment, planting the seed for beach volleyball development in that region. The first permanent nets began to appear, and people soon began playing recreational games on public parts of the beach and in private beach clubs. Eleven such beach clubs appeared in the Santa Monica area, beginning in late 1922. The first inter-club competitions were staged in 1924.

Kerri Lee Walsh Jennings (born August 15, 1978) is an American professional beach volleyball player.

Walsh Jennings and teammate Misty May-Treanor were the gold medalists in beach volleyball at the 2004, 2008, and 2012 Summer Olympics. They have been called "the greatest beach volleyball team of all time."

Kerri Lee Walsh was born in Santa Clara, California, the daughter of Margery Lee (née Formico) and Timothy Joseph Walsh. Her ancestry includes Italian (from a great-grandfather), Austrian, Irish, Canadian, and Scottish. She grew up in Saratoga, California.

In her earlier elementary and middle school life, she attended Baymonte Christian School in Scotts Valley, California. As a high school student, Walsh played indoor volleyball at Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, California. She graduated in 1996. There, she led her team to three state championships in indoor volleyball from 1993 to 1995. She also led her team to one state championship in basketball in 1995. In 1996, she was named by G (ESPNHS) as their first girl's national volleyball player of the year.

Christopher St. John ("Sinjin") Smith (born May 7, 1957 in Santa Monica, California) is a professional beach volleyball player. He won one U.S. championship and two World championships with Randy Stoklos.

He began to compete as a professional in the two man beach volleyball tournaments of Southern California at age fifteen. In 1977 he won his first tournament, teaming with "Stormin" Mike Normand. He went to college at UCLA, where he played volleyball as a setter under head coach Al Scates. The UCLA Bruins reached the finals in 1978 before losing to Pepperdine. In 1979 the Bruins defeated cross town rival USC to win the National Championship. Smith received All American honors both years. In the early 1980s he made a successful beach team pairing with former UCLA teammate Karch Kiraly. The partnership split up as Karch came to focus on the National Olympic Team. Smith moved on to partner with Randy Stoklos, and the two became the most dominant pair in men's beach volleyball. Smith was the first player to reach 100 career open tournament wins. He was a primary force behind the growth of beach volleyball as a sport, and the development of the Association of Volleyball Professionals, which formalized the sport as a professional athletic competition. In the late 1980s and early 1990s "Smith and Stoklos" were the kings of the beach.

Holly McPeak (born May 15, 1969 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California) is a retired American beach volleyball player.

A three-time Olympian, McPeak has 72 career beach volleyball titles and $1.4 million USD in career earnings, which are third (behind Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh) and second (behind May-Treanor) respectively of any woman in the history of professional beach volleyball. She also won a bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics with partner Elaine Youngs. McPeak, at 5 feet 7 inches, is considered short for beach volleyball, which makes her success all the more remarkable.

McPeak signed with the California Golden Bears out of Mira Costa High School, where she was teammates with her Mira Costa classmate and future beach partner Lisa Arce. At Cal, she was named National Freshman of the Year in 1987, before transferring to UCLA in 1990.

In 1990, she helped the UCLA Bruins to a national championship, the school's fifth of six titles.

At the 1996 Summer Olympics, McPeak partnered with Nancy Reno and did not win a medal despite high expectations. Team conflict is often cited as a cause of this, and McPeak's breast enlargement surgery -- earning her the nickname of "Twin Peaks" -- has been cited as a potential cause of this conflict.