Why Does 1 Volleyball Player Wear a Different Color Jersey?

Photo credit: Getty / ANDREJ ISAKOVIC / Contributor

When you're watching volleyball at the Paris Olympics, you might notice a player wearing a different colored jersey than the rest of their team - like Team USA's Justine Wong-Orantes, shown in white in this picture while the rest of the team wears navy blue. There's a good reason for their standout appearance: you've just spotted the libero, a specialized player whose unique role requires them to be easily visible at all times.

Libero means "free" in Italian, and the position, which was first introduced to the game in 1998, entered Olympic-level competitions in the 2000 Sydney Games, per ESPN. The libero has always worn a different-colored jersey to make the player easier for the referee and other players to spot, since they're under unique restrictions. Sitting volleyball, a Paralympics event, also has liberos.

What Is a Libero in Volleyball?

According to USA Volleyball, the libero is a defensive specialist who can replace any player in the back row without counting toward a team's substitutions, which in international play are limited to six per set.

There are some specific limitations on what a libero can and cannot do while they are on the court. In international play, liberos cannot serve, spike, or rotate into the front row positions. Essentially, they're a defensive specialist who's there to help receive serves and make crucial saves during longer rallies.

One of the greatest benefits of having a libero comes in the rules for player substitutions. This unique quality of the role makes it a highly strategic position, especially because the other players on the court rotate throughout the match, and teams may swap in hitters for defensive players, who will eventually end up on the front row.

Although liberos don't count toward the overall substitution limits, there are some rules about how they can be swapped in. According to the rules of the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball, the official international governing body of the sport, "there must be at least one point played between a libero substituting off for a player and going back on the court for another player." In other words, the libero cannot be on the court for the entirety of the game. They also must rotate in while the ball is out of play, and the replacement happens in a designated zone. And when rotating back out, only the player who the libero initially replaced can then replace the libero.

The rules around liberos are slightly different in different levels of play. In college volleyball, the NCAA recently began to allow teams to have a two libero system, for instance.

Liberos are primarily defensive players, focused on keeping a ball that's been hit to their side of the net in play. But ideally, they'll also pass the ball to a setter, who can then set up the ball for an attack - so in that way, they help support the team's offensive strategy.

So when you spot that off-colored jersey, keep your eyes on that player - you're likely to see some pretty incredible defensive work at play.

- Additional reporting by Mirel Zaman