Kevin Kahn Wong (born September 12, 1972, in

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...

) is a retired professional beach volleyball player. He currently lives in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

and runs a volleyball training program for youth.

Personal life

Wong graduated from the Punahou School. He then attended

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

and received his degree in economics in 1995. Wong was named to

People Magazine ''People'' is an American weekly magazine that specializes in celebrity news and human-interest stories. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC. With a readership of 46.6 million adults in 2009, ''People'' had the lar ...

's "50 Most Beautiful People" issue in 2000. He was honored by the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California in "Celebrating Chinese Americans in Sports", May 2009. He served as a beach volleyball analyst for NBC Sports at the Summer Olympics of

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

and

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

and continues to work on all of NBC's coverage. He is the founder and director of Spike and Serve, a Hawaii-based non-profit program that aims to positively shape lives through the sport of volleyball. Wong is also involved with the Chinese American variation of volleyball called 9-man. He is featured in the documentary about the sport called 9-Man. Wong is active in the community where he grew up, a Hawaii board member of the Positive Coaching Alliance In 2014, Wong was honored by USA Volleyball as the junior service award winner for outstanding male coach after leading his U15 team to an undefeated gold medal finish at the Girls Junior National Championships.

Career

At UCLA, the 6'7" Wong was a three-time All-American. He helped the team win

NCAA championships The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

in 1993 and 1995. After college, he switched to professional beach volleyball. In 2000, he paired with Rob Heidger to finish 5th at the Sydney Olympics. Along with partner

Casey Jennings Casey Thomas Jennings (born July 10, 1975) is an American beach volleyball player. He teams up with Kevin Wong and has teamed up with Brad Keenan or Matt Fuerbringer during most of his career. He married Kerri Walsh, a beach volleyball player w ...

, they successfully ended the 2010 season by capturing gold at the

Swatch FIVB World Tour The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour (known between 2003 and 2012 as the FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour for sponsorship reasons) was the worldwide professional beach volleyball tour for both men and women organized by the ' ( FIVB), the ...

after beating the Brazilian duo of Benjamin Insfran and Bruno Schmidt at

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

, Netherlands.Jennings, Wong complete incredible run with Dutch gold

References

External links

Kevin Wong profile at avp.comKevin Wong CNN article
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Profile at NBC Sports Pressbox
American men's beach volleyball players American sportspeople of Chinese descent Living people 1972 births Hawaii people of Chinese descent Punahou School alumni UCLA Bruins men's volleyball players {{US-volleyball-bio-stub