Volleyball player

In our introductory article for Volleyball, we have mentioned that Volleyball has short but very interesting history and that means that it must have produced some of the famous players who have ever played the game called Volleyball. In the year 2001, the Federation Internationale de Volleyball or FIVB announced the list of the greatest Volleyball players in both the male and female categories for the past century. This selection was made by 12 members expert panel, which gone through the players’ top results, stability, personal attitude, performance and technical contribution towards the game. Here is the final list announced by FIVB.

Charles Frederick “Karch” Kiraly (/ˈkɑːrtʃ kɪˈraɪ/) (born November 3, 1960) is an American volleyball player, coach and broadcast announcer. In the 1980s he was a central part of the U.S National Team that won gold medals at the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games. He went on to win the gold medal again at the 1996 Olympic Games, the first Olympic competition to feature beach volleyball. He is the only player (man or woman) to have won Olympic gold medals in both the indoor and beach volleyball categories. He played college volleyball for the UCLA Bruins, where his teams won three national championships under head coach Al Scates.

Quick Facts about Karch Kiraly – One of the Most Famous Volleyball Players

Name: Charles Kiraly, known as Karch Kiraly or Karch
Karch Kiraly Volleyball Legend

Jersey Number: #15

Born: November 3, 1960 in Jackson, Michigan

Nationality: United States

Height: 189 cm – 6′ 2″

Volleyball Position: Outside hitter

Spiking arm: Right

Resides: San Clemente, California

Family Status: wife Janna and two sons, Kristian and Kory.

Teams: US Indoor Olympic Volleyball Team, UCLA – University of California Los Angeles, Il Messaggero of Ravenna – Italy

Beach Volleyball Partners: Mike Lambert, Kevin Wong, Adam Johnson, Kent Steffes, Randy Stoklos, Sinjin Smith etc.

Nicknames: Karch, “Thunderball in Volleyball”

Skills: great overall skills, hard driven intensity, concentration, determined winner

Achievements of Karch Kiraly

Career Highlights
FIVB, the international governing body, named Kiraly the “Greatest Player of the 20th Century”

Three-time Olympic gold medalist (1984, 1988 indoor champion; 1996 beach champion).

Named by FIVB as the Best Male Volleyball Player in the World in 1986 and 1988.

Kiraly holds the record in beach volleyball history with 148 career wins breaking the all-time mark of 139.

Kiraly was the first volleyball player ever to make $3 million in beach volleyball prize money.

While at UCLA, Karch Kiraly led his teams to three NCAA Men’s Volleyball Championships while being named to the NCAA Men’s All-American team four times.

Olympic games- Beach Volleyball Gold Medal for Kiraly
After the club volleyball in Italy, he retired from the indoor volleyball and returned to the United States to play beach volleyball full-time. Kiraly won a record 148 professional beach volleyball tournaments.
famous volleyball players karch kiraly 10

Karch partnered with Kent Steffes to win the first men’s Olympic beach volleyball gold medal at Atlanta in 1996. His last beach volleyball tournament win came in August 2005, when he won an AVP tournament in Huntington Beach, California at the age of 44 with his partner Mike Lambert.

Volleyball Hall of Fame, which is a tribute to the famous volleyball players, inducted Karch kiraly in 2001: “kiraly is known for his overall volleyball skill and his laser-like concentration. He plays volleyball with a hard driven intensity. His competition is fierce but not mean, his ability to shut the world out, legendary. He has an uncanny ability to make the impossible plays and to turn a match around.” (Source: volleyball hall of fame).

You really can’t describe him any better than that. Karch Kiraly is a true volleyball legend, who retired his career in 2007.

KIRALY “PHENOMENAL FEELING” AFTER WINNING FIFTH OLYMPIC MEDAL

Karch Kiraly (top center) celebrates with the United States women’s Volleyball team after winning the bronze medal match at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games over The Netherlands in four sets at the Maracanazinho.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 20, 2016 – Despite the disappointment of a semi-final setback to Serbia, Karch Kiraly is still relentless in is pursuit of perfection in Volleyball as he coached the American women’s team here Saturday to a four-set bronze medal victory over The Netherlands at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

When asked after the match about his feelings in being a part of this fifth medal winning team in the Olympics, the 55-year old Charles Frederick “Karch” Kiraly said it was a “phenomenal feeling” as his American women’s team posted a 3-1 (25-23, 27-25, 25-22, 25-19) win in 103 minutes over an up-and-coming Dutch team at the Maracanazinho.


In pursuit of perfection is five-time Olympic medal winner Karch Kiraly

The only person to win an Olympic gold medal in both Volleyball (Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988) and Beach Volleyball (Atlanta 1996) as a player, Kiraly collected his fourth medal as an assistant coach for the American women’s silver medal Volleyball team at the London 2012 Summer Games.

“The biggest difference between London and today in Rio is that we ended the competition with a win,” said Kiraly, who is always watching and listening for anything that will make him better as the leader of the United States program through the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. “Losing anytime in your final match of any competition is disheartening. I am very pleased and proud with the way our team responded today after losing to Serbia.”

karch kiraly quote