London Olympics: Beach Volleyball

Given its scantily clad performers and the novelty of taking place in a giant sand pit, it's no surprise that Beach Volleyball has taken the Olympics by storm since taking a bow at the Atlanta 1996 Games. The London 2012 Beach Volleyball event will be played out right in the centre of London, in the historic square of Horse Guards Parade a mere five minute walk from Buckingham Palace. The beach variety of the sport is very similar to regular Volleyball, but with two clear differences: teams of two instead of six, and a much smaller court. Oh, and the presence of a sandy beach requires all participants to wear bikinis and bermudas as well, but that's a given. 24 teams will battle it out in the preliminaries before 16 teams progress to the knock-out phased, with the winners of the semi-finals going head-to-head (or cheek-to-cheek?) for the gold.