40 Facts About Karch Kiraly

Charles Frederick "Karch" Kiraly is an American volleyball player, coach, and broadcast announcer.

Karch Kiraly was a central part of the USNational Team that won gold medals at the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games.

Karch Kiraly went on to win the gold medal again at the 1996 Olympic Games, the first Olympic competition to feature beach volleyball.

Karch Kiraly is the only player to have won Olympic medals of any color in both the indoor and beach volleyball categories.

Karch Kiraly played college volleyball for the UCLA Bruins, where his teams won three national championships under head coach Al Scates.

Karch Kiraly is currently the head coach of the United States women's national volleyball team leading them to their first-ever gold medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and thereby completing the "triple crown" of coaching an Olympic gold medal-winning team as well as personally winning gold medals in both indoor and beach volleyball.

Karch Kiraly began playing volleyball at age six with encouragement from his father, Laszlo Kiraly, who had been a member of the Hungarian Junior National team prior to fleeing the country during the Hungarian national uprising of 1956.

At age 11, Karch Kiraly entered his first beach volleyball tournament paired with his father.

Karch Kiraly's father played a key role in creating the boys' volleyball program at the school.

Karch Kiraly has credited his high school coach, Rick Olmstead, for teaching him the value of hard work and dedication.

In 1978, Karch Kiraly enrolled at UCLA, where he majored in biochemistry and was a brother of the Epsilon Sigma Chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha.

Under head coach Al Scates, Karch Kiraly led UCLA to the NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship in his freshman season in 1979.

Karch Kiraly finished his college career with another title during his senior year.

Karch Kiraly earned All-American honors all four years, and was awarded NCAA Volleyball Tournament Most Outstanding Player in 1981 and 1982.

Karch Kiraly was inducted into the UCLA Hall of Fame in 1992, and his jersey was retired in 1993.

Karch Kiraly was twice named the best player in the world by the international governing body.

Karch Kiraly was named the best volleyball player of the 20th century along with Lorenzo Bernardi.

Karch Kiraly led the US National Team to the gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics, overcoming a pool play loss to Brazil to defeat Brazil in the finals.

Karch Kiraly was the youngest player on the gold medal team.

Karch Kiraly was selected as a captain for the 1988 team at Seoul.

Karch Kiraly had a long career on the professional beach circuit, and with 148 career tournaments won is the 'winningest' player in the sport's history.

Karch Kiraly won at least one tournament in 24 of the 28 seasons he played in a career that spanned four decades.

Karch Kiraly played in his first beach tournament at age 11 as his father's partner.

Karch Kiraly has said as an 11-year-old he was thrilled to discover in beach volleyball he could compete with grown men on even terms.

The partnership split up as Karch Kiraly came to focus on the US National Team.

In 1992, Karch Kiraly left his indoor career behind, returning to the US to play beach volleyball full-time on the AVP tour.

In 1996 Karch Kiraly returned to the Olympics, this time competing in beach volleyball with his partner, Steffes.

Karch Kiraly continued to win tournaments into his 40s, recording two AVP tournament victories with his partner Brent Doble in 2002 and 2003, and four more with Mike Lambert in 2004 and 2005.

In 2006, Karch Kiraly partnered with Larry Witt, and in 2007 partnered with Kevin Wong.

Over his career on the beach, Karch Kiraly won over $3 million in prize money and earned considerably more in endorsements.

Karch Kiraly retired from the AVP tour after the 2007 season.

Ultimately Karch Kiraly won 148 professional beach volleyball titles, 74 of them with Steffes.

Karch Kiraly has worked as a broadcaster for ESPN and provided color commentary for the AVP on NBC broadcasts.

Karch Kiraly worked as an analyst for NBC Sports during their coverage of the beach volleyball competition at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Karch Kiraly began coaching at St Margaret's Episcopal High School, where he coached his sons, Kristian and Kory.

In 2012, Karch Kiraly was named head coach of the US National Women's Volleyball team to try to compete in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In October 2014, Karch Kiraly coached the Women's National Team to the FIVB World Championship, defeating China in the Gold Medal final.

In doing so, Karch Kiraly became the fourth person to win a World Championship gold medal as a player and a coach.

The FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League 2021 championship was held in Italy and Karch Kiraly coached the women's indoor USA team to win the top prize of $1 million.

Karch Kiraly studied biochemistry in college, and considered pursuing a career in medicine after completing college.