Kent Steffes
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Kent Steffes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Born | June 23, 1968 Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S. | (age 56)|||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Kent Steffes (born June 23, 1968 in Ann Arbor, Michigan) is a former professional beach volleyball player.
Steffes received his AAA beach rating while still attending Palisades High School. He was named the 1986 National High School Player of the Year and was the nation's most highly recruited high school senior. In 1987, he won the World Championships in San Diego with his partner Forrest Smith. He enrolled at Stanford University and played for one season before transferring to UCLA where he graduated with a degree in Economics. While a Bruin he joined the AVP Tour full-time in 1988. Steffes earned the AVP No. 1 ranking at age 22, the youngest player to do so in the history of the sport.
Steffes and his playing partner Karch Kiraly won the gold medal in beach volleyball at the 1996 Summer Olympics, the first to win the gold medal in this event. During the 1990s Steffes teamed with numerous partners to win over 110 events.
Steffes' career lasted from 1988 until 1999. Steffes is currently the winningest player to ever play the sport. Steffes has been elected to numerous Beach Volleyball Hall of Fames[1][2] and in 2020 was recognized by USA Volleyball as the All-Time Great Male Beach Volleyball Player[3]. Steffes is considered by many to be the G.O.A.T. in the sport or the Greatest Of All Time[4][5][6].
Steffes graduated from UCLA in 1993 with a bachelor's degree in economics. That same year he was a member of the AVP Board of Directors, and served as secretary. In 2000 he enrolled in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford, where he graduated in 2002.
Steffes has two children, Katharine Jackson Steffes, born in 2004 (age 19–20) followed two years later by Conrad William Steffes, born 2006 (age 17–18). Steffes currently lives in Los Angeles where he writes and works in the financial industry.
Awards and honors
- AVP Best Up-and-Coming Player 1989
- AVP Comeback Player of the Year 1996
- AVP Most Valuable Player 1996
- AVP Special Achievement 1996
- Youngest number one player in the history of AVP (21)
- Record most wins in a season (21)
- Record most consecutive wins (13) (record shared with Kiraly, Jim Menges and Greg Lee)
- Highest winning percentage in history of the sport (.482)
References
- ^ https://cbva.com/Home/HallofFame.
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(help) - ^ https://usavolleyball.org/hall-of-fame/hall-of-fame-induction/kent-steffes/.
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(help) - ^ https://usavolleyball.org/hall-of-fame/hall-of-fame-induction/kent-steffes/.
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(help) - ^ https://www.volleyball1on1.com/kent-steffes-the-greatest-beach-player-ever/.
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(help) - ^ https://volleyballmag.com/sandcast-kent-steffes-081722/.
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(help) - ^ http://bvbhof.com/buildio/player_detail.asp?p=311#:~:text=So%20staggering%20were%20the%20numbers%20and%20the%20hype%2C,the%20sport%27s%20essential%20skills%20at%20an%20elite%20level.
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External links
- Official website
- Kent Steffes at the Beach Volleyball Database
- Kent Steffes at the FIVB beach volleyball database
- Kent Steffes at Olympics.com
- Kent Steffes at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
- 1968 births
- Living people
- American men's beach volleyball players
- Beach volleyball players at the 1996 Summer Olympics
- Olympic beach volleyball players of the United States
- Olympic medalists in beach volleyball
- Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics
- Sportspeople from California
- American Olympic medalist stubs
- American volleyball biography stubs