Karch_Kiraly

Karch Kiraly

Charles Frederick "Karch" Kiraly (pronounced ) (born November 3, 1960 in Jackson, Michigan), is an American volleyball player who is the only person to have won Olympic gold medals in both the indoor and beach versions of the sport.

UCLA career

Kiraly started for the UCLA Bruins volleyball team from 1979 through 1982. He was named All America all four years. While playing in UCLA's Pauley Pavilion under coach Al Scates, he led UCLA to three NCAA Men's Volleyball Championships in 1979 (undefeated season), 1981, and 1982 (undefeated season). Over the four years under Kiraly, UCLA won 129 matches and lost only 5.

Kiraly won Most Outstanding Player in 1981 and 1982. He was inducted into UCLA's Hall of Fame in 1993.

At UCLA, Kiraly studied Biochemistry and graduated cum laude in June 1983 with a 3.34 cumulative GPA.

1988 Olympics

Kiraly was popularly called the "Thunderball in Volleyball." He went on to become a fixture on the national team through much of the 1980s as a combination setter/hitter. Team USA would win Olympic gold medals in 1984 and 1988 with Kiraly. He was team captain for the 1988 Seoul Olympics, wearing #15, and was also named by FIVB (International Volleyball Federation) as the top player in the world in 1986 and 1988.

After the 1988 Olympics, he retired from the national team. After a stint of club volleyball in Italy with Steve Timmons (Il Messaggero of Ravenna), he returned to the U.S. to play beach volleyball full time. Kiraly has won a record 148 professional beach volleyball titles, and partnered with Kent Steffes to win the first men's Olympic beach volleyball tournament in 1996. Even in his mid-40s, he continued to compete effectively against far younger players; his early-2000s partnership with Mike Lambert revitalized his career. Kiraly's most recent win came in August 2005, when he and Lambert won an AVP tournament in Huntington Beach, California. He has won over $3 million in beach volleyball, also a record.

AVP

In 2002, at the age of 42, Kiraly began training with Mike Rangel, a noted fitness coach and founder of Southern California-based PlyoCity Kiraly went on to record another 6 AVP tournament victories, two with partner Brent Doble in 2002 and 2003, and four with Lambert in 2004 and 2005.

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

Karch retired from the AVP tour at the end of the 2007 season, but as of 2008 still works as a broadcaster for ESPN in addition to continuing color commentary for AVP on NBC broadcasts. Kiraly served as an analyst for NBC Sports coverage of Beach Volleyball at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Personal

Kiraly resides in San Clemente, California, with his wife Janna and two sons, Kristian and Kory. His father, Laszlo Kiraly, had played for the Hungarian national volleyball team.

He babysat Misty May-Treanor when he was younger.