Karch Kiraly

Life and work

The story behind the role.

Olympic champion as a player and coach across indoor and beach volleyball.

Charles Frederick "Karch" Kiraly ( KARCH kirr-EYE; born November 3, 1960) is an American volleyball player, coach, and broadcast announcer. 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 medals of any color 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. Kiraly is widely regarded as the greatest male volleyball player of all time. Kiraly is currently the head coach of the United States men's national volleyball team. Previously, he was the coach of the United States women’s national 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.

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