Kent_Steffes
Kent Steffes
American volleyball player
Kent Steffes (born June 23, 1968, in Ann Arbor, Michigan) is an American former professional beach volleyball player.[1]
Steffes received his AAA beach rating while still attending Palisades High School.[1] He was named the 1986 National High School Player of the Year.[2] He enrolled at Stanford University and played for one season before transferring to UCLA, where he graduated with a degree in economics.[3] While a Bruin he joined the AVP Tour full-time in 1988.[1]
Steffes earned the AVP No. 1 ranking at age 22, the youngest player to do so in the history of the sport.[1] Steffes and his partner Karch Kiraly won the inaugural beach volleyball gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.[4] That same year, he was selected as the MVP of the AVP.[1]
In his career, Steffes teamed with numerous partners to win 110 events,[5] and has the highest winning percentage in the history of the sport (48.6%).[6] By the time Steffes retired in 1999, he had won over $2,500,000 in prizes.[1]
In 2004, Steffes was inducted into the California Beach Volleyball Hall of Fame.[1] In 2020, Steffes was inducted into the USA Volleyball Hall of Fame as an All-Time Great Male Beach Player.[7][5]