The Volleyball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2013 has been revealed, and it has its usual international flavor.
Three players make up the Volleyball Hall of Fame Class of 2013.
The Volleyball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2013 has been revealed, and it has its usual international flavor.
The Holyoke shrine announced Thursday that Australian beach volleyball player Natalie Cook, American indoor player Caren Kemner and Russian indoor player Vyacheslav Zaytsev were elected for induction.
“The three individual inductees for the 2013 Volleyball Hall of Fame are remarkable athletes who elevated the sport to new levels for the next generation to strive for,” said Doug Beal, co-chair of the Volleyball Hall of Fame Selection Committee.
Cook is the only athlete, male or female, to have participated in beach volleyball in all five Olympiads in which it has been offered (1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012). She joins her former partner, Kerri Pottharst, in the Hall. The duo won the gold medal at the 2000 Games in Sydney.
Kemner was an outside hitter for the United States in the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Olympics, helping the Americans to a bronze medal in 1992. In 15 years with the national team, she was voted its most valuable player five times.
Zaytsev was the setter for the Soviet Union teams that won Olympic gold in 1980 and 1988 and silver in 1976. He also helped the Soviets win two International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) world championships.
Also being honored at the Oct. 18 ceremony are the 14 nations – Belgium, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, France, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, United States, Uruguay and Yugoslavia – that first formed the FIVB in 1947.
Those nations will be added to the Court of Honor.
“Without the efforts of the founding members of the FIVB, the rise of the game of volleyball to a truly global sport would not have been possible,” Hall of Fame executive director George Mulry said.