America’s most decorated volleyball champion suggests talent wins matches, but talent plus culture wins Olympic medals.
(This is part 2 of a story based on a Forbes exclusive interview with Karch Kiraly July 3, 2026. All quotes are taken directly from a transcript of the interview.)
No Shortcuts To Success
Olympic championships are often remembered in a single photograph.
A player celebrating on the podium. Gold medals hanging around smiling necks. National flags rising toward the rafters while an anthem echoes through the arena. What those photographs never reveal is how many years of unseen work came before them. For Karch Kiraly, Olympic success has never been measured by what happens during two weeks of competition. It is built over thousands of practices, countless conversations, and hundreds of decisions that few people outside a team will ever notice.
That philosophy has defined one of the most remarkable careers in Olympic history.
Kiraly remains the only athlete to win Olympic gold medals in both indoor and beach volleyball. As head coach of the United States women’s national team, he guided the Americans to their first Olympic gold medal in Tokyo before returning to the podium with a silver medal in Paris. Today, he is applying those same lessons to the U.S. men’s national team as it prepares for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Yet when asked to describe his first season coaching the men, Kiraly did not begin with offensive systems, blocking schemes, or statistical analysis. He began with people.
“2025 was a year of learning,” Kiraly said during an exclusive interview. “Learning these people, learning about them both as people and about their families, and also learning about them as players.”
Elite coaches are often elite because of their technical expertise. Kiraly is no exception to that rule. But he also recognizes the power of intangibles like relationships. That approach has been shaped by decades inside Olympic volleyball, where the difference between standing atop the podium and watching another nation celebrate is frequently measured by only a handful of points. The United States men’s heartbreaking 15-13 fifth-set semifinal loss to Poland in Paris 2024 serves as one reminder.
So too does Tokyo in 2021.
US Women Finally Reach The Top
The American women arrived at the delayed 2021 Olympic Games carrying nearly six decades of delayed gratification. Since women’s volleyball debuted at the Olympics in 1964, the United States had repeatedly come close but never won gold. Kiraly’s team finally broke through under circumstances unlike any Olympics before it. Pandemic lockdowns disrupted preparation. Competition unfolded inside mostly empty arenas without the energy normally created by Olympic crowds.
“It was a really, really special group,” Kiraly recalled. “They fought through a lot of unusual conditions and put together a great tournament.”
The result was the long overdue gold medal.
That win changed the trajectory of US Women’s volleyball. The challenge in Paris would look entirely different. Instead of entering as breakthrough contenders, the United States women arrived with questions. Results throughout the Olympic cycle had fallen short of expectations. On the eve of the Paris Games they needed to dig in.
Spotlight: Setter Jordan Poulter
Perhaps no player better represented that resilience than setter Jordan Poulter. Less than two years before Paris, Poulter suffered a devastating knee injury that threatened her Olympic future. Much of her rehabilitation unfolded inside otherwise empty gyms at the American Sports Centers in Anaheim.
“There were lots of lonely days,” Kiraly said. “Lots of coaches around her, but not a lot of teammates.”
She returned just in time to help lead the Americans back to another Olympic final. For Kiraly, Poulter’s comeback illustrates an often-overlooked reality about Olympic success. Championships are not always won by the healthiest or even the most talented teams. They are often won by the teams that respond well to adversity.
Game Changers
That was revealed during pool play in Paris. Facing China under a new Olympic tournament format that offered virtually no margin for error, the United States quickly fell behind two sets to none. Under previous Olympic formats, five preliminary matches allowed teams to recover from an early stumble.
Paris offered only three.
Another straight-set defeat could have dramatically altered the Americans’ path through the tournament. Kiraly reached down his bench. Only he doesn’t call those players substitutes. Years ago, he borrowed a phrase from former U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team coach Jill Ellis that has become part of his own coaching vocabulary.
“They’re game changers.”
Outside hitters Avery Skinner and Kathryn Plummer entered the match and immediately shifted its momentum, helping force a deciding fifth set. The United States ultimately lost the match. But it may have been the turning point of the tournament.
Confidence returned.
Momentum shifted.
The Americans advanced to the Olympic final. Kiraly smiles when discussing the phrase because it changes how athletes view their role. A substitute waits. A game changer prepares. The distinction may seem subtle.
That mindset extends well beyond volleyball.
Whether leading an Olympic team, a Fortune 500 company or a startup navigating uncertainty, the strongest organizations create environments where every member believes they can influence the outcome. Leadership, Kiraly has learned, is less about hierarchy than about shared values and beliefs. Those lessons now shape the United States men’s program as experienced Olympians return alongside younger players gaining confidence on the international stage.
The US Men’s Team In 2028
Matt Anderson, T.J. DeFalco, Jake Hanes and Aaron Russell bring years of elite experience. Younger players such as Ethan Champlin and Jordan Ewert bring fresh energy after valuable international competition during 2025. Kiraly’s responsibility is not simply deciding who starts.
It is creating trust between generations. The chemistry he is building today may ultimately prove more valuable than any tactical adjustment made during an Olympic semifinal two years from now.
Stay With His Process
As Los Angeles moves closer to hosting the 2028 Olympic Games, much of the public conversation will focus on medal projections, roster decisions and championship expectations. Kiraly understands those questions better than anyone. He has lived them as an athlete, assistant coach and head coach. But after all these years, he still returns to the same foundation.
Culture.
Relationships.
Preparation.
Olympic gold, he knows, is earned quietly over thousands of ordinary days long before the world begins watching.
By the time the Olympic flame is lit above Los Angeles in July 2028, fans will see only the finished product. Karch Kiraly will know they are witnessing something that began years earlier—in empty gyms, in difficult conversations, in family gatherings after practice and in a culture patiently built one teammate at a time.
That may ultimately become his greatest Olympic legacy.
