Chaim Schalk (born April 23, 1986)FIVB Profile
/ref> is a Canadian beach volleyball player. Schalk placed ninth at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Early life

Chaim Schalk grew up in

Red Deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of we ...

, Canada. He has four competitive brothers. He grew up learning how to fight and work for everything (including food at the dinner table). Chaim started playing volleyball at age of 12. He and his brothers erected a makeshift net in their backyard. After picking up beach volleyball, he pestered his father to build a sand court where he and his high school friends could play. His father arranged for a truck to dump the sand but he and his friends had to level it out. Chaim credits the backyard beach court for taking him from just enjoying the game, to wanting to really pursue it!

Transition to beach volleyball

Up until 2009, Chaim’s primary focus was indoor volleyball. He was a setter and a Second-Team All-Canadian while playing for

Trinity Western Spartans The Trinity Western Spartans are the athletic teams that represent Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia. The university's teams are members of U Sports, and compete in the Canada West Universities Athletics Association, and ...

for two seasons from 2006 to 2008. He also won two National Championships with

Red Deer College , mottoeng = To Greater Things Through Learning , established = 1964 , type = Public polytechnic institute , president = Stuart Cullum , city = Red Deer , state = Alberta , country = Canada , students = 7,500 , undergrad = , campus = Ur ...

. That all changed when Chaim made the Canadian Beach Volleyball National Team and competed on the FIVB World Tour in 2010.

The Albertans

The two

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

ns (Chaim Schalk and Ben Saxton) teamed up near the end of the 2012 season, in part, because both were in favor of spending more time training in California with the top American teams. They won their first tournament together, at a

NORCECA The North, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation (NORCECA) is the international governing body for the sports of volleyball in Northern America, Central America, and the Caribbean. NORCECA is the continental confederation that ...

event in Chula Vista, cementing the partnership. Another early highlight was a fifth place finish at the 2013 World Championships in Stare Joblonki, Poland, for Canada’s best ever men's result at the global event, after defeating one of the top teams in the world, Latvia’s Janis Smedins and

Aleksandrs Samoilovs Aleksandrs Samoilovs (born April 6, 1985) is a beach volleyball player from Latvia. Samoilovs and teammate Mārtiņš Pļaviņš, with whom he partnered since 2004, represented Latvia at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. The duo d ...

. Saxton and Schalk went on to reach their first ever FIVB World Tour podium in 2014, claiming bronze at the Parana Open in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. They closed the season with a victory at the

continental championship. Their 2015 season included podium finishes at the

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...

and

Olsztyn Olsztyn ( , ; german: Allenstein ; Old Prussian: ''Alnāsteini'' * Latin: ''Allenstenium'', ''Holstin'') is a city on the Łyna River in northern Poland. It is the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and is a city with county rights. ...

Grand Slam events. They reached a Major Series podium for the first time in July 2016, taking bronze in Porec, Croatia.

2016 Summer Olympics

In their Olympic debut at Rio 2016, Saxton and Schalk advanced to round 16. Taking ninth place in Men's Beach Volleyball at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

References

External links

* * 1986 births Living people Sportspeople from Red Deer, Alberta Canadian men's beach volleyball players Beach volleyball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic beach volleyball players of Canada Trinity Western Spartans volleyball players {{Canada-volleyball-bio-stub