Karch Kiraly on UCLA Championships and Olympic gold medals

In The Front Row with Mike Vaccaro

Kiraly was born in Michigan and trained at an early age with his dad, a member of the Hungarian Junior National Team, who fled his native country during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. At age 11, Karch entered his first beach volleyball event with his dad and would eventually spend four decades playing beach volleyball. After his family moved to California, Kiraly excelled at indoor volleyball and helped lead his high school team to an undefeated season in 1978. During the recruiting process, Kiraly chose UCLA over USC and would have a memorable four years playing for legendary coach Al Scates who led the Bruins to 19 NCAA titles including three with Karch on the team. Kiraly joined the US National team in 1981 and would be part of two gold medal winning teams (1984 Los Angeles Olympics and 1988 Seoul Olympics). In 1996, Kiraly and partner Kent Steffes would win the first-ever beach volleyball gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics for his third gold medal. Broadcasting and coaching would follow his playing career and in 2016 he would lead the US Women's National Team to a bronze medal in the Rio Olympics. He would follow that with a gold in the 2020 Tokyo games. He is also signed up to lead the team in the next Olympics in 2024 in Paris. Kiraly shares stories from his stops with us and tells us why he remembers some of the losses more than the many wins. He also talks about the influence he has had on the college game both indoors and on the beach.