Karch Kiraly

Three-time Olympic gold medalist Karch Kiraly made his Olympic broadcasting debut when he joined NBC as the beach volleyball analyst at the 2004 Athens Games. Kiraly currently serves as a television commentator for the AVP Tour, the professional beach volleyball tour, on NBC.

Kiraly was a member of the U.S. Men's Indoor Volleyball Team that won the gold medal at both the 1984 and 1988 Olympics. Additionally, Kiraly served as captain of the U.S. Men's National Volleyball Team from 1985-88, including the 1988 Olympic Team, along with the winning U.S. teams from the 1985 World Cup and the 1986 World Championships. He went on to win the inaugural gold medal for Olympic beach volleyball with Kent Steffes when the sport made its Olympic debut at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta.

Kiraly remains the only male volleyball player to win three Olympic gold medals and was named by FIVB as the Greatest Male Volleyball Player of the 20th Century. He is also the only player ever to win gold medals both indoors and on the beach. In addition, Kiraly holds the beach volleyball record with 148 career wins, breaking the all-time mark of 139 in 1999. NBC's Chris Marlowe has said of him: "Karch Kiraly is the Jerry Rice of volleyball." He was named to the Volleyball Hall of Fame in 2001 and will be inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame on June 19, 2008.

Kiraly earned a Bachelor's degree in biochemistry from UCLA in 1983. While in college he led his teams to three NCAA Men's Volleyball Championships while being named to the NCAA Men's All-American team four times.

Kiraly and 1996 and 2000 U.S. Indoor Olympian Mike Lambert teamed up for the 2004 and 2005 seasons to win four times, the last of which gave Kiraly his 148th career win, and broke his own record a 5th time as the oldest player ever to win a championship.

Kiraly played his final season of competition on the AVP Tour in 2007. Currently, Kiraly coaches his sons' (Kristian and Kory) boys high school volleyball team at St. Margaret's Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., heads the Karch Kiraly Volleyball Academy, provides television analysis on NCAA women's and men's college indoor volleyball, supports Starlings Volleyball Clubs, a program for economically disadvantaged kids in 38 cities across the U.S., delivers motivational speeches, and oversees the Karch Kiraly Scholarship Fund, which awards scholarships annually to graduating high school volleyball players. Kiraly wrote his first book, Karch Kiraly's Championship Volleyball, in 1986, and co-authored two others, Beach Volleyball and The Sand Man (Kiraly's autobiography) with Byron Shewman.

He resides in San Clemente, Calif., with his wife, Janna, and their two sons.