Sinjin Smith

Sinjin Smith

Personal information
Born	1957
Medal record Men's Volleyball Competitor for the  United States Goodwill Games Bronze 1994 St. Petersburg Beach

Christopher St. John ("Sinjin") Smith (born May 7, 1957 in Santa Monica, California) is a professional beach volleyball player. He won one U.S. championship and two World championships with Randy Stoklos.

He began to compete as a professional in the two man beach volleyball tournaments of Southern California at age fifteen. In 1977 he won his first tournament, teaming with "Stormin" Mike Normand. He went to college at UCLA, where he played volleyball as a setter and outside hitter under head coach Al Scates. The UCLA Bruins won the national championship in Smith's freshman year. Smith contributed more substantially in the 1978 run, where the Bruins reached the finals before losing to Pepperdine. In 1979 the Bruins defeated cross town rival USC to win the national championship. Smith received All American honors both years. In the early 1980s he made a successful beach team pairing with former UCLA teammate Karch Kiraly. The partnership split up as Karch came to focus on the National Olympic Team. Smith moved on to partner with Randy Stoklos, and the two became the most dominant pair in men's beach volleyball. Smith was the first player to reach 100 career open tournament wins. He was a primary force behind the growth of beach volleyball as a sport, and the development of the Association of Volleyball Professionals, which formalized the sport as a professional athletic competition. From the late 1980s through the early 1990s, Smith and Stoklos were the "kings of the beach."

References

• Sinjin Smith, biography from Volleyball World Wide.
• Profile at the Beach Volleyball Database
• Sinjin Smith, Biography from the Volleyball Hall of Fame

Sporting positions
Preceded by Inaugural	Men's FIVB Beach Volley World Tour Winner alongside Randy Stoklos 1989 – 1992	Succeeded by  Roberto Lopes and Franco Neto (BRA)

v t e 1996 USA Olympic Volleyball Team (Men's beach - Gold & Silver medals) Qualification Men's indoor Women's indoor Men's indoor Lloy Ball Bob Ctvrtlik Scott Fortune John Hyden Bryan Ivie Michael Lambert Dan Landry Jeff Nygaard Tom Sorensen Jeff Stork Ethan Watts Brett Winslow Women's indoor Tara Cross-Battle Lori Endicott Caren Kemner Kristin Klein Beverly Oden Elaina Oden Danielle Scott Tammy Webb Paula Weishoff Tonya Sanders-Williams Elaine Youngs Yoko Zetterlund Men's beach Karch Kiraly Kent Steffes Mike Dodd Mike Whitmarsh Carl Henkel Sinjin Smith Women's beach Holly McPeak Nancy Reno Coaches Terry Liskevych Fred Sturm