Karch Kiraly, the only male volleyball player in Olympic history to win three gold medals, thinks beach volleyball moved away from its roots. So he created his own tour in 2009. This year, he’s bringing it Galveston.
The Corona Light Wide Open Tour will make its second stop of a nine-city tour on Saturday at Stewart Beach. The beach volleyball tournament, which includes eight divisions for men, women and coeds, starts at 9 a.m.
The competition continues Sunday at 9:30 a.m. with eight spots on the line for allexpenses-paid berth into the U.S. Open beach volleyball championships in Manhattan Beach, Calif. The total prize purse is $5,000.
“I think it’s really cool to have that opportunity to go compete against the best of the best,” Kiraly said.
Kiraly started playing beach volleyball at 6 years old and attended UCLA. He eventually moved to indoor when he won two Olympic gold medals with the U.S. team in 1984 and 1988.
He went back to the sand in the early 1990s and competed in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta where he won, becoming the first volleyball player to win three gold medals.
Kiraly still has won more tournaments and prize money than any player in the history of beach volleyball.
But in 2001, the international volleyball federation instituted rule changes to beach volleyball that included rally scoring (a team doesn’t need to be serving to earn a point) and shortening the court by 20 percent.
Kiraly thought, while good intentioned, the changes ruined the game’s dynamic. The shorter court made the sport a big-man’s game, he said.
“There was no more need for speed, and now height gives you a huge advantage,” Kiraly said. “To me, spectators want to see the everyman. It’s why guys like Spud Webb and Allen Iverson are so great.”
The Corona Light Wide Open Tour includes the original court size of 30 feet by 30 feet. It also uses real sand as opposed to “imported sand just dumped in a parking lot,” Kiraly said.
The tour also uses sideout scoring.
“We had to get back to the lifestyle and the roots, what the greats back in the day started this sport for,” Kiraly said.
More than 300 teams are expected to compete in the Galveston stop, Tipp Nunn, spokesman for the Corona Light Wide Open Tour, said. The event also will include Spalding Bubble Wrap Contest, Wet n’ Wild Relay Race and Oakley’s Serving for Shades.
The tour added Galveston this year because it was looking for a spot on the Texas coast. The island provided a perfect location, Kiraly said.