Michał Zygmunt Ruciak (born 22 August 1983) is a Polish former professional

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

player. He was a member of the Poland national team from 2004 to 2014, a participant in the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

London 2012 The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, the 2009 European Champion and the 2012 World League winner.

Personal life

Ruciak was born in

Świnoujście Świnoujście (; ; ; meaning " Świna ivermouth"; ) is a city in Western Pomerania and seaport on the Baltic Sea and Szczecin Lagoon, in the extreme north-west of Poland, mainly on the islands of Usedom and Wolin, and Karsibór island, once ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. On 22 September 2007 he married Justyna (née Terlecka). They have two sons: Rafał (born on 2 June 2008) and Filip (born on 18 March 2011). In 2014, they split up. In 2016, he married Paulina. In April 2018, they revealed they are expecting their first child.

Career

Club

He began to play with Maraton Świnoujście, later moving to Morze Szczecin,

Skra Bełchatów Skra Bełchatów, competing for sponsorship reasons as PGE GiEK Skra Bełchatów and officially called KPS Skra Bełchatów SA, is a professional men's volleyball club based in Bełchatów in central Poland, founded in 1957. They compete in th ...

and AZS Olsztyn. In 2008 moved to

ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle, is a professional men's volleyball club based in Kędzierzyn-Koźle in southern Poland, founded in 1994. They compete in the Polish PlusLiga. ZAKSA have won 9 domestic league titles, 10 national cups, and three CEV Cha ...

. After 7 seasons in

, he left this club in April 2015.

National team

Michał Ruciak was in the Polish squad when the Polish national team won the gold medal of European Championship 2009. On September 14, 2009 he was awarded Knight's Cross of Polonia Restituta. The Order was conferred on the following day by the Prime Minister of Poland,

Donald Tusk Donald Franciszek Tusk (born 22 April 1957) is a Polish politician and historian who has served as the prime minister of Poland since 2023, previously holding the office from 2007 to 2014. Tusk served as the president of the European Council (20 ...

. He won with Polish team three medals in 2011 - silver at

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

and two bronzes at World League and

European Championship A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

. He is a gold medalist of World League 2012 in

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

.''Poland wins historical gold at the 2012 World League''
– fivb.org – 08-07-2012

Honours

Club

CEV Cup The CEV Cup is the second tier official competition for men's Volleyball clubs of Europe. The competition takes place every year. Until 2000, it was the CEV Cup Winners' Cup. In 2000 it was renamed to CEV Top Teams Cup and in 2007 to CEV Cup. T ...

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

– with

* Domestic ** 2004–05 Silver medal with cup

Polish Championship, with AZS Olsztyn ** 2010–11 Silver medal with cup

Polish Championship, with ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle ** 2012–13 Simple gold cup

Polish Cup The Polish Cup in Association football, football ( ) is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout football competition for Polish football club (association football), football clubs, held continuously since 1950, and is the second most i ...

, with ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle ** 2012–13 Silver medal with cup

Polish Championship, with ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle ** 2013–14 Simple gold cup

, with ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle

Youth national team

* 2003

FIVB U21 World Championship

Individual awards

* 2013:

– Best server * 2014:

– Best receiver

State awards

* 2009:

Knight's Cross of Polonia Restituta

Statistics

2008–09 PlusLiga The 2008–09 PlusLiga was the 73rd season of the Polish Volleyball Championship, the 9th season as a professional league, the first season under the name PlusLiga organized by the Professional Volleyball League SA () under the supervision of th ...

�
Best receiver
*

2011–12 PlusLiga The 2011–12 PlusLiga was the 76th season of the Polish Volleyball Championship, the 12th season as a professional league organized by the Professional Volleyball League SA () under the supervision of the Polish Volleyball Federation (). Ass ...

�
Best receiver
*

2017–18 PlusLiga The 2017–18 PlusLiga was the 82nd season of the Polish Volleyball Championship, the 18th season as a professional league organized by the Professional Volleyball League SA () under the supervision of the Polish Volleyball Federation (). PGE S ...

�
Best receiver

References

External links

*
Player profile
at ''PlusLiga.pl''
Player profile
at ''Volleybox.net'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Ruciak, Michal 1983 births Living people People from Świnoujście Sportspeople from West Pomeranian Voivodeship Polish men's volleyball players Olympic volleyball players for Poland Volleyball players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Knights of the Order of Polonia Restituta Skra Bełchatów players AZS Olsztyn (volleyball) players ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle players BKS Visła Bydgoszcz players Czarni Radom players Stal Nysa players Outside hitters Liberos 21st-century Polish sportsmen