Dr. Stephen Giugni OAM will continue his work with World ParaVolley to serve for a second term as assistant sport director of beach paravolley.
Giugni has almost 25 years of service to paravolley with his first event in 1998 when he was involved in the planning for the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games. He also had a significant role in launching WPV’s first-ever beach paravolley event – Beach ParaVolley World Series – in Pingtan, China in 2019.
Among the many highlights in his paravolley career is the development of the foundation resources to support the delivery of the initial event in Pingtan, including the Official Rules, leveraging his history and expertise as a WPV and FIVB referee.
Giugni’s role has been vital in the development of a roadmap for inclusion of beach paravolley in the sports programme of the LA2028 and has been supporting nations in the development of resources and opportunities for RDEs and potential World Championship Series events.
He assisted in the establishment of the first Beach ParaVolley Development Centre in Florida, United States, where many upcoming competitions, events, clinics and camps will be conducted for athletes, coaches and officials.
“Stephen Giugni is a respected leader in beach volleyball, and we are fortunate to have him working on behalf of World ParaVolley in his on-going efforts to develop beach paravolley on all levels. His expertise in events, rules of the game, refereeing, identification of beach athletes, and all other areas of paravolley has proven very valuable in moving forward towards our goal of including this exciting new sport discipline in future Paralympic Games,” WPV Sport Director Lori Okimura said.