Black female volleyball players continue to excel in the sport, breaking ceilings and achieving remarkable feats. From early pioneer athletes to emerging stars, their contributions are undeniable. This article highlights some of the most famous African American volleyball players who have left an indelible mark on the sport.
Pioneers and Legends
Flo Hyman
Flo Hyman is considered one of the best female volleyball players in the world. Born in Inglewood, CA, on July 28, 1954, she became the University of Houston’s first female scholarship athlete. In 1976, she won the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women Player of the Year award. Hyman starred for the United States at the World Volleyball Championships in 1982 and was named to the six-member all-World Cup team at the 1981 World Cup in Tokyo.
Hyman led America to a silver medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. On January 24, 1986, she collapsed during a routine substitution in a Japanese league game. An autopsy later found the cause to be Marfan’s syndrome, a congenital heart disorder. In recognition of her accomplishments, she was inducted into the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame the same year.
Rita Crockett
Considered one of the best all-around volleyball players ever, Rita Crockett has been a trailblazer in the sport for parts of five decades and continues to be active today. After earning AIAW All-American honors in 1977 as a part of the legendary University of Houston volleyball team along with Flo Hyman, Rita turned her skills to the international volleyball scene and helped put the United States among the world’s elite.
Rita was a part of the U.S. Women’s Olympic Volleyball Team, which was among the favorites to win the gold medal at the Moscow Olympic Games. However, Rita and her teammates were denied the chance for Olympic stardom in 1980 due to the United States boycott of the Moscow Games. Despite the disappointment of not competing in Moscow, Rita continued channeling her energies into her volleyball career, placing fourth at the FIVB World Cup in Osaka, Japan.
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One year later, Rita and her American teammates captured the bronze medal at the FIVB World Championship in Lima, Peru, reaching the medal round with victories over West Germany, China and Brazil. Team USA reached the gold-medal match with a four-set victory over Peru in the semifinals, guaranteeing the Americans their first-ever Olympic Games volleyball medal. From 1982 to 1986, she honed her skills in Japan’s V-League playing for Daiei. In her final season with Daiei, she helped lead the squad to the V-League title.
Rita returned to the United States to play in the new Major League Volleyball league from 1986-87, earning the league’s most valuable player award in 1987. During this time, she moved into the coaching field serving as an assistant with Long Beach State University from 1986 to 1988. While not competing in the MLV or coaching, Rita took to the sand and became an accomplished beach volleyball star competing on the Women’s Professional Volleyball Association Tour from 1988 to 1996. In 1989, she teamed with Volleyball Hall of Famer Jackie Silva to win the World Beach Volleyball Championship to become the first African-American woman to earn the title. The following season she was the league runner-up with Angela Rock.
Rita’s indoor career continued in Italy with Matera and Rome from 1988 to 1993. In the 1989-90 season, Rita doubled as Matera’s head coach. During the 1991 season, Rita was named the most valuable player of the Italian League and would later help Rome win the European Club Championship in 1993. Rita transferred her skills to the Swiss League from 1993 to 1998 as she played for RTV Basel, doubling as the team’s head coach. RTV Basel won the Swiss Cup from 1994 to 1996, the Swiss Championship from 1995 to 1996 and participated in the European Cup of Champions in 1995. Rita, who also served as the Swiss National Team Head Coach in 1995, was named most valuable player of the league four times.
After her playing career ended in 1998, Rita continued to coach back in the United States. She served as the head coach at the University of Iowa from 1998 to 2004 before taking on the associate head volleyball coach role at Florida State University in 2004 to 2005.
Current Stars
Foluke Akinradewo Gunderson
Currently, Foluke Akinradewo Gunderson is a volleyball player for the Japanese club Hisamitsu Springs. Throughout her career, Gunderson has earned three Olympic medals. During her undergraduate matriculation, the athlete played women’s volleyball at Stanford. In 2019, she welcomed her first child Olukayode Ayodele Gunderson with her husband Jonathan. She wasn’t even sure she would return for the 2020 Games, as she and her husband Jonathan Gunderson wanted to start a family. She had their son Kayode on Thanksgiving Day in 2019, but not without complications. So the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Games to 2021 actually helped give her more time to regain that core strength.
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She said it all flew through her mind - the years of training, the successes and disappointments, the physical struggles - as she saw her close friend and teammate Jordan Larson score the gold medal-clinching point. Gunderson said of all the USA Volleyball teams she’s been on in a lengthy career, this one was by far the most open to players being vulnerable and sharing their true selves and innermost thoughts, allowing them to help each other through difficulties and bond more as teammates.
Gunderson takes pride in being an inspiration as a Black woman and hopes the team’s gold medal can be a catalyst for the sport. “We always believed in ourselves that we could do it, but we’ve just been working at this for so long and have invested so much,” Gunderson said. “It represented all that we had committed, the love we have for each other and the love for the game.
Jordan Thompson
Jordan Thompson is an up-and-coming volleyball player for the United States women’s national volleyball team and LOVB Pro team LOVB Houston. Thompson comes from an equally athletic family, as her father was a Harlem Globetrotter for eight years. In addition, her uncle is Chris Doleman, a Pro Football Hall of Famer. Thompson has already earned two Olympic medals.
Haleigh Washington
Haleigh Washington also plays volleyball for the United States women’s national team. Washington played the middle blocker position for the Penn State women’s volleyball team. In 2023, the volleyball player made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. This is partly because Washington helped her United States women’s national volleyball team win its first Olympic gold medal in 2020.
Chiaka Ogbogu
Chiaka Ogbogu is a highly talented volleyball player who also plays middle blocker for the United States women’s volleyball team. Over the years, the star athlete has earned many props for her blocking ability, including winning silver at the 2024 Olympic Games and a gold medal at the 2021 Olympics. In addition, at the 2024 Olympics, she earned the title of Best Blocker.
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Ogbogu said, “At a young age, I know for a fact I would not have been bold enough to go talk to someone I looked up to. It’s often parents who tell me how much it means to them, especially Black parents who are trying to navigate the volleyball scene, because it’s not easy. I think it’s cool that they are comfortable enough to come to me with their questions and concerns and I’m able to help."
Destinee Hooker
Destinee Hooker is an American indoor volleyball player. Hooker’s notable achievements include being named best spiker at the 2012 Olympic Games. In undergrad, she played track and field and volleyball at the University of Texas.
Falyn Fonoimoana
Falyn Fonoimoana is both a professional indoor and beach volleyball player. Her uncle, Eric Fonoimoana, won a gold medal in beach volleyball at the 2000 Summer Olympics. Fonoimoana was even selected to participate in the 2015 Pan American Games. In 2022, Fonoimoana joined Athletes Unlimited, an American professional league.
Team USA's Olympic Triumph
The U.S. women’s volleyball team won what is perhaps an even tougher overall tournament, the FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship, in 2014. The Americans won Olympic bronze in 1992 and 2016. They had come close, losing in the Olympic final three times: in 1984, 2008 and 2012.
In the gym, we always talk about doing what has never been done before,” three-time Olympic medalist Foluke Akinradewo Gunderson said. “That’s been our theme for a very long time. A theme that kind of just seemed on the horizon that we couldn’t quite reach. To have finally accomplished it in the manner we did makes it so thrilling."
The gold medal win by Team USA in the 2020 Tokyo Games on Aug. 8 connected the current team to a silver medal to sisters Kim, Elaina and Beverly Oden to Teee Williams, to Dietre Collins-Parker, to Tara Cross-Battle, to Danielle Scott-Arruda, to Ogonna Nnamani to Destinee Hooker to Megan Hodge to Alisha Glass, among others. Scott-Arruda played in five Olympics, and Cross-Battle in four.
| Player | Olympic Medals | Other Notable Achievements |
|---|---|---|
| Flo Hyman | Silver (1984) | AIAW Player of the Year (1976), World Volleyball Championships Star (1982) |
| Foluke Akinradewo Gunderson | 3 Olympic Medals | Plays for Hisamitsu Springs (Japan) |
| Jordan Thompson | 2 Olympic Medals | Plays for US National Team and LOVB Houston |
| Haleigh Washington | Gold (2020) | Forbes 30 Under 30 (2023), Penn State Volleyball Team |
| Chiaka Ogbogu | Gold (2021), Silver (2024) | Best Blocker (2024 Olympics), US National Team |
| Destinee Hooker | - | Best Spiker (2012 Olympics), University of Texas |
| Falyn Fonoimoana | - | 2015 Pan American Games, Athletes Unlimited |
UGA volleyball player creates safe space for black women
Representation and Inclusion
“I know from speaking at club tournaments, I see the girls who look like me and look up to me,” Gunderson said. “And I am so proud to represent them because it’s true, we don’t have great representation in this sport."
Butler University’s Sharon Clark, who has helped many players and parents with that journey, is finishing her term this year as president of the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA). She is the first Black woman to hold that position.
“When I played, we were just thrilled to see one other Black person on the court - a lot of us were the only Black women on our teams,” Clark said. “There are a group of us who have been driven for the last few decades to make our sport more inclusive and also provide ways for girls to get into it."
Clark explained that volleyball is a very technical sport that requires precise training for players to become elite. Also, unlike a sport such as basketball, where skills such as shooting and dribbling can be practiced alone inside or outside, volleyball is tougher to work on alone and there are far fewer available courts.
“Volleyball has not done enough to be more welcoming,” Clark said. “There are lots of great players who make it. But there would be three, four … maybe tenfold more if we opened ourselves up more as a sport. The kids who get through tend to be from more middle-class to upper-class families who come from schools where they have a good basis for the sport.
According to data released by the NCAA in March that looked at collegiate sports’ demographics from 2011-12 through 2019-20 at all three divisions, white women make up most of the volleyball players. They were 70% in 2019-20, down from 77% in 2011-12. Black women’s participation over that time remained about the same, ranging from 9% to 11%. At the Division I level, Black women and those of other ethnic backgrounds have made some participation growth in the past decade. In 2011-12, 72% of Division I players were white, 16% other and 12% Black. In 2019-20, those numbers were 62%, 23% and 15%.
As for coaches, in 2019-20 white men and women made up 81.7% of collegiate volleyball head coaches and 78.7% of assistants. Black men and women made up 7.2% of head coaches and 6.8% of assistants. Other ethnicities made up 11.1% of head coaches and 14.5% of assistants. In Division I, 76.5% of head coaches and 72.1% of assistants are white. Those numbers are 15.4% and 19.7% for other ethnicities and 9.4% and 8.1% for Black.
Clark points out that for volleyball to continue growing, ultimately it needs to be “more intentional” about making the sport accessible to Black players.
