Volleyball at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's tournament
The women's tournament in volleyball at the 2008 Summer Olympics was held at Capital Indoor Stadium and Beijing Institute of Technology Gymnasium from 9 to 23 August 2008. The twelve competing teams were split equally into two pools of six teams. Each team played all other teams in their pool with the winning team gaining 2 points and the losing side 1 point. The top four teams from each pool progressed through to the quarterfinals. The rest of the tournament was a single-elimination bracket, with a bronze medal match held between the two semifinal losers. A total of 38 matches were played: 15 in each group, 4 quarterfinals, 2 semifinals, 1 bronze medal match, and 1 gold medal match.
Qualification
''* The Asian Olympic qualification tournament and the World Olympic Qualification Tournament are combined into one event. The top 3 teams at the tournament will qualify as the medallists of the World Olympic Qualification Tournament while the best Asian team outside the top 3 will qualify as the Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament champion.
Pools composition
Teams were seeded following the Serpentine system according to their ranking as of January 2008. Twelve qualified nations were drawn into two groups, each consisting of six teams. After a robin-round, the four highest-placed teams in each group advanced to a knock-out round to decide the medals.
The first four teams in each Preliminary Round pool advanced to the quarterfinals, eight teams in total. The format was as follows: A1 vs. B4 B1 vs. A4 A drawing of lots determined the pairings among A2/A3 and B2/B3. The purpose of this drawing was to prevent a second-place team in a pool from deliberately losing the last game in pool play in order to select an "easier" opponent in the quarterfinals. Based on a drawing of lots after the group stage, the United States faced and defeated Italy, while China drew and won against Russia in their quarterfinal matches. The other quarterfinal match-ups were determined by the pool standings. Brazil played Japan. Cuba played play Serbia. Both top seeds went on to defeat their opponents 3–0, thus reaching the semifinals. In the semifinals, Brazil defeated the host nation and defending champion China, while the United States defeated Cuba. Both semifinal matches were won 3–0. In the final, Brazil, for the first time in the tournament, lost a set but was able to win the next two sets from the United States to claim the match and the gold medal. In the third-place match, China defeated Cuba for the bronze medal. ;Bracket All times are China Standard Time.
