Taking into account the years competing under the banner of the Soviet Union, the Russians are the most successful nation in the history of women’s volleyball. Russia claimed Olympic gold medals at Mexico 1968, Munich 1972, Moscow 1980 and Seoul 1988, on top of the two silver medals at the Tokyo 1964 and Montreal 1976. Under the Russian banner, they won back-to-back silver medals at the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004. They will be competing in their sixth consecutive Olympic Games after being crowned as champions of the European Olympic Qualification Tournament. The Russians have also won the World Championship seven times, including 2006 and 2010, and the European Championship on 19 occasions, most recently in 2015, and triumphed in the 1973 World Cup and the 1997 World Grand Champions Cup.
Russia’s best spell in the World Grand Prix started in the late 1990s when, after clinching gold in 1997, they went on to win the title twice more in the next five years. Only Brazil have won more medals in the competition than Russia. Although Russia have won three World Grand Prix titles, it has been 14 years since they topped the podium. They took the silver medal in 2015 after they last won it in 2009. They took the bronze medal in 2014 after finishing fourth in Group 1’s Intercontinental round. Later in that year at the World Championship, Yury Marichev’s side finished equal-fifth after reaching the third round before falling to USA and hosts Italy