2026 Sitting Volleyball World Championships – Men's event

The 2026 Sitting Volleyball World Championships – Men's event is the 14th edition of the quadrennial world championship, contested by the senior men's national sitting volleyball teams, sanctioned by World ParaVolley. It will be held in Hangzhou, China from 10 to 17 July 2026, marking the first time the event is held in the country and the first time it will be held in East Asia.

16 teams will take part for the third time since the expansion in 2018. Hosts China automatically qualified as hosts. Qualification took place between May and November 2025, with continental, world tournaments and rankings being used as qualification. Thailand will make their debut.

The winners secure a ticket to the 2028 Summer Paralympics.

Iran are the defending champions, after beating Bosnia and Herzegovina 3–0 in the 2022 final in Sarajevo.

After withdrawing from hosting the 2022 edition, Hangzhou was given the 2026 hosting rights instead. Hangzhou had already been stated as the host on the events section of the World ParaVolley website but it was made official in July 2025. This marks the first time the event is held in the country and the first and second time it will be held in East Asia and Asia respectively.

“We sincerely appreciate WPV’s trust and support in entrusting us with hosting the 2026 WPV Sitting Volleyball World Championship! We will go all out, prepare with great care, and strive to present a wonderful and successful sports event!”

“After an extensive dialogue with the local organizing committee we are extremely happy to announce the contract signature for the 2026 Sitting Volleyball World Championships for Women and Men. Hangzhou has already successfully hosted this year’s ParaVolley Asia-Oceania Zonal Championships. The Worlds will kick us off into the qualification race for the LA28 Paralympics – so we can expect thrilling matches for the global crown and for the first tickets to LA28 to be awarded.”

“I am excited that the 2026 World Championships will be held in Hangzhou, China. It’s the first time the World Championships have been held in Asia, the first of our LA28 qualification events, and the first time that the challenge system will be used at this level of event. It is a great facility, so we expect some spectacular matches between our teams that have already been qualifying via their 2025 Zonal Championships.

• On 29 July 2025, the host contract was signed.

• Host nation: 1

• 2024 Summer Paralympics champions: 1

• 2028 Summer Paralympics hosts: 1

• ParaVolley Asia Oceania: 2

• ParaVolley Africa: 2

• ParaVolley Americas: 2

• ParaVolley Europe: 3

• 2025 World Cup: 2

• World rankings: 2

16 teams will take part for the third time since the expansion in 2018. Hosts China automatically qualified as hosts. Qualification took place between May and November 2025, with continental, world tournaments and rankings being used as qualification. A total of 32 countries took part in qualification, excluding Iraq who qualified despite not taking part in a qualifier.

Of the qualified teams, 14 took part in 2022. Thailand will make their debut, marking the first time a team from Southeast Asia qualified. Hosts, China return after missing out on 2022 due to Covid.

Of the absentees, two-time champions, Netherlands, the only team to have taken part in every edition, missed out for the first time ever. Serbia missed out after their sporadic appearance in 2022. Similar to 2022, Russia was banned from taking part in qualification.

For the first time, Canada qualified for the second successive time. For the first time ever, Europe doesn't have the most teams at the championship, as Asia and Oceania have six teams taking part compared to Europe's five.

The highest ranked team to not qualify was 2024 Paralympic Games hosts, France, ranked 15th, while the lowest ranked team to qualify was Thailand, placed 20th.

The final 2 places belonged to the top 2 teams as per the sitting volleyball world rankings who had not yet qualified as of 12 November 2025.

The World ParaVolley Development Centre in Hangzhou will be the venue. The venue hosted the 2017 and 2025 Asia and Oceania Sitting Volleyball Championships, plus the 2017 World ParaVolley Women's Super 6.

16 teams are split into four groups of four, where every team advances to the Round of 16. In the Round of 16, teams who finished 1st play the teams that finished fourth, and the teams who finished 2nd play the teams that finished third. The eight winners advance to the Quarter Finals, while the eight losers play in a 9–16 classification bracket.

• All times are local.
• The top four teams in each pool qualify for the final round.
• Match won 3–0 or 3–1: 3 match points for the winner, 0 match points for the loser
• Match won 3–2: 2 match points for the winner, 1 match point for the loser

1. Number of matches won
2. Match points
3. Sets ratio
4. Points ratio
5. If the tie continues as per the point ratio between two teams, the priority is given to the team which won the match between them. When the tie in points ratio is between three or more teams, a new classification of these teams in the terms of points 1, 2, 3 and 4 is made taking into consideration only the matches in which they were opposed to each other.

• 2026 Sitting Volleyball World Championships – Women's event

• World ParaVolley youtube channel