Volleyball Fan Life-Player Retirements

Two days after the end of the Olympics, I am still getting my thoughts together about the tournament. In the mean, there are always sad news to report, which are the retirements.

A poignant but inescapable ritual that happens after any Olympics are the announcements about athletes leaving the sport that they have given their lives to. Many of the names are very familiar, as they are the names that have entered our consciousness through our quadrennial immersion in the Olympics.

There are twinges of sadness mixed with fond memories of the players with each name, as their performances through the quads have been ingrained in the sport’s memory banks. The announcements often strike me as if I was losing a member of the family, a volleyball family that reunites every four years.

This moment in time, these scant two weeks of the Olympics, is a snapshot of the continuous history of volleyball. The people who take part in the competition, whether they are players, coaches, or officials, are a select part of the greater flow of humanity who are just like us: passionate for the sport of volleyball, always seeking to make the sport better, constantly driving the highest level of the sport beyond the present, and evolving volleyball both evolutionarily and revolutionarily. In this sports continuum, the people are creating the traditions and writing the history.

Retirements are also implicit reminders that we are witnessing the changing of the guards: as the players age, they find themselves unable to maintain their level of performance, and younger and stronger players are expected to take up the baton. This is the natural order of the sport. It is the natural flow of the universe. It is how the sport of volleyball renews and revitalizes itself.

Our society has and probably always will be overly enamored with youth, newer is always seductively better in our viewpoint. Yet the natural flow of the universe also has its own rhythm and pace, the sport keeps its own time and society’s desire for the new has no bearing on which players endure and which players become the reason that other players don’t endure. Players are aware of the sport’s  rhythm; being named to the national team is a long and grueling series of filters for the players, because everyone involved wants to put the best, most competitive team on the court. Every day of practice and competition during the selection process is the put up or shut up time for the players, it was the time for the young to demonstrate their VBIQ and skills to compete at the Olympics level, their youth notwithstanding; this was also the time for those who are experienced of mind and proficient of skill to show whether their weathered bodies can carry them through to the next quad. The magical mix of fresh bodies, experienced minds, tactical adroitness, and smooth execution determines whether players make the final roster.

Those players that can announce their retirements at the end of the Olympics are the fortunate ones, the exceptions rather than the rule. They have survived the filtering process multiple times, under difficult times, and they have thrived long enough to have the choice of to walk out of the pantheon of the select few of their own volition. In short, they made the decision on their own, the decision was not made for them.

As I read the roll call of retirement announcements, my memories recall those players from international volleyball, they were the ones who have shown me the infinitely varying possibilities of the sport of volleyball. The names and images of the players come rushing in, as I assiduously place the retired players into the flow of my personal memory of volleyball history to appreciate forever more.

Wrestling has a wonderful tradition which I wish volleyball could emulate but is probably logistically impossible to execute. After having won his fifth Olympic gold medal overall all of his years wrestling in Paris, Mijaín López of Cuba — in the international symbol for a wrestler's retirement — removed his shoes and left them on the mat and walked away in his socks. The symbolism of the moment resonated with my sentimental nature. It is a personal statement attesting to their passion for the sport, but it is also a symbol of their reverence for the traditions of the sport. I have seen this retirement tradition many times; it moves me every single time. I wish we offered the same ritual to the volleyball players, to offer them the symbolic opportunity to proclaim their humble farewell to the sport to the volleyball people.

Here are some of the players who are retiring. There have been speculations about how many of the USA men’s and women’s roster will retire, but nothing has been officially released.