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The Greatest Volleyball Player at the Olympic Games

Who is the greatest volleyball player of all time based on Olympic Games performances? Using medals won as the measurement, we have used a weighted total medal count of each male and female volleyball player from all modern Olympic Games to rank their overall performance, using data from all Olympics including the Tokyo 2020 Games.

There are six indoor volleyball players who have won three gold medals each at the Olympic Games, all from the dominant Cuban team who won in 1996, 2000 and 2004. One of these players, Ana Fernández, was also part of the bronze medal winning team at the 1992 Olympics, but she did not get a game. The top beach volleyball player is Kerri Walsh with three gold and one bronze from 2004 to 2016.



If you combine his indoor and beach volleyball performances, the highest ranked male player is Karch Kiraly from the US with three gold medals. Kiraly won his medals in both indoor (1984, 1988) and beach volleyball (1996). As can be seen in the tables below, there is a large number of players with three gold medals each.

See also the best athlete from each sport, and the best overall.

Top Olympic Games Volleyball Players

Here are the top ranked athletes from indoor and beach volleyball, for performances at all Olympiads (including 2021), using the Topend Sports Weighted Ranking System to order the athletes, awarding points for both gold (6 points) and other medals (silver 2 pts, bronze 1 pt).

Table: The Top Ranked Athletes from Indoor Volleyball at the Olympic Games (including Tokyo 202)

rank name country gender Gold Silver Bronze total
medals
rating
=2 Mireya Luis Cuba F 3 0 0 3 18
=2 Marlenis Costa Cuba F 3 0 0 3 18
=2 Regla Torres Cuba F 3 0 0 3 18
=2 Regla Bell Cuba F 3 0 0 3 18
=2 Idalmis Gato Cuba F 3 0 0 3 18
=2 Lilia Izquierdo Cuba F 3 0 0 3 18

Table: The Top Ranked Athletes from Beach Volleyball at the Olympic Games

rank name country gender Gold Silver Bronze total
medals
rating
1 Kerri Walsh USA F 3 0 1 3 19
2 Misty May-Treanor USA F 3 0 0 3 18

notes: initial data from Wikipedia of multiple Olympic gold medalists (with at least 3 gold medals, including results from 2021). For the ranking order, we have used the Topend Sports Weighted Ranking System.



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Olympics Extra

The next Olympics will be in Paris 2024, followed by the Winter edition in Milan-Cortina 2026. Check out the list of Olympic Games sports, as well as discontinued and demonstration sports.

Major Events Extra

The largest sporting event in the world is the Olympic Games, but there are many other multi-sport games. In terms of single sport events, nothing beats the FIFA World Cup. To see what's coming up, check out the calendar of major sporting events.

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