​This excerpt is part one of a two-part piece anchored in a Forbes exclusive interview with Karch Kiraly conducted on July 3, 2026. All quotes come directly from the interview transcript. The piece opens by noting that the road to the 2028 Olympic Games is officially anchored in Los Angeles, yet for volleyball, the journey has long traced a broader path through Southern California. The sport is deeply interwoven with the region’s identity: beach volleyball legends rose from the sands of Manhattan Beach, and elite indoor players honed their craft in crowded gyms spanning from Orange County to the San Fernando Valley. Every weekend, thousands of aspiring Olympians take to tournaments hosted across vast venues, where dozens of courts fill cavernous convention centers and athletic facilities.
A scene-rich image captures the atmosphere: a game ball rests on the court prior to the National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion on May 11, 2026, illustrating the ongoing synthesis of collegiate and professional levels in Los Angeles. The photo credit features Tyler Schank of NCAA Photos via Getty Images, underscoring the event’s place within a broader media landscape. Few venues embody this pipeline as clearly as the American Sports Center in Anaheim, a hub where club tournaments routinely attract families from around the country. For Kiraly, Southern California remains a magnet for developing and producing the next generation of Olympic hopefuls, a truth he’s intimately familiar with as he moves through a city and region that have long nurtured volleyball talent.
Another vivid image from Huntington Beach—Lopes Victoria leaping for a ball during a semifinal match against Kelly Cheng and Megan Kraft at the AVP Huntington Beach Open on May 17, 2026—serves to illustrate the sport’s ongoing vitality in the area. The photograph, captured by Joe Scarnici for Getty Images, reinforces how Southern California’s culture, beaches, and competitive circuits continually feed the sport’s top levels. It is fitting, then, that Kiraly was speaking from Anaheim as the Olympic cycle advances toward what could become the defining chapter of his storied career.
For nearly half a century, Kiraly has stood at the heart of American volleyball excellence. A historic image from Seoul on September 22, 1988 shows Kiraly, wearing number 15, competing for the United States in a men’s volleyball match against Argentina during the 1988 Summer Olympics. The photograph, captured by David Madison for Getty Images, accompanies a reminder of his dual legacy: as a player, he secured indoor Olympic gold in 1984 and 1988, then redefined the sport by winning Olympic gold in beach volleyball in 1996, becoming the first athlete to triumph in both disciplines. As a coach, he led the United States women’s national team to its first Olympic gold in Tokyo, followed by a silver medal in Paris three years later. A later image from Tokyo 2020 shows Kiraly, then head coach of Team United States, reacting after defeating Brazil in the Women’s Gold Medal Match at Ariake Arena on August 8, 2021. Phil Walter’s photograph, also via Getty Images, captures the intensity of that moment and the broader narrative of Kiraly’s influence on the sport.
Today, with fewer than two years remaining before Los Angeles hosts the world again, Kiraly has taken on perhaps the most compelling, high-profile challenge of his career, a challenge that promises to redefine not only his legacy but the trajectory of American volleyball on the global stage. The piece sets the stage for a deeper dive into Kiraly’s strategies, philosophies, and the evolving landscape of volleyball as the city prepares to welcome the world back to its shores.