Sinjin Smith | |||||||||||||||
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Personal information | |||||||||||||||
Nickname | Sinjin | ||||||||||||||
Nationality | American | ||||||||||||||
Born | Christopher St. John Smith May 7, 1957 (age 66) Santa Monica, California, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
Height | 6 ft 3 in (191 cm) | ||||||||||||||
College / University | University of California, Los Angeles | ||||||||||||||
Volleyball information | |||||||||||||||
Position | Setter | ||||||||||||||
Number | 22 (UCLA) | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Christopher St. John "Sinjin" Smith (born May 7, 1957, in Santa Monica, California) is an American former professional beach volleyball player. [1] He was the first player to win 100 career tournaments, and won numerous Manhattan Open titles with Karch Kiraly and Randy Stoklos as partners. [2] [3]
Smith went to college at UCLA, where he was a setter. [4] UCLA won the National Championship in Smith's freshman year. [5] In his junior year, the team again reached the finals before losing to Pepperdine, and Smith was selected to the All-Tournament Team. [5] In his senior year in 1979, the Bruins defeated cross-town rival USC to win the National Championship. [5] Smith was again selected to the All-Tournament Team, and was voted the Championship's Most Outstanding Player. [5] Smith was selected as an All-American in both his junior and senior years. [4]
Smith was inducted into the UCLA Hall of Fame in 1991. [6]
Smith began to compete as a professional in the two-man beach volleyball tournaments of Southern California at age fifteen. [2] He won his first beach tournament with former UCLA teammate "Stormin" Mike Normand. [1] His first Manhattan Open was won in 1979 teaming with another UCLA alum, Jim Menges. [7] In the early 1980s, he made a successful beach team pairing with former UCLA teammate Kiraly. [7] [2] They split up when Kiraly committed full-time to the U.S. national team. [8]
Smith moved on to partner with Stoklos, and the two became the most dominant pair in men's beach volleyball. [3] [7] Smith was selected as the Best Defensive Player by the AVP in 1990, 1991, and 1992. [1] He won a bronze medal in beach volleyball at the 1994 Goodwill Games in Saint Petersburg, Russia. [7]
By the time Smith announced his retirement in 2001, he had won 139 career tournaments. [3] He had also amassed $1,700,000 in career prize money. [1] As a primary force behind the growth of beach volleyball as a sport, [3] he was inducted into the California Beach Volleyball Hall of Fame in 2002 and the International Volleyball Hall of Fame in 2003. [4] [2]
The pair of Smith and Stoklos was featured in the video game Kings of the Beach released by Electronic Arts for MS-DOS in 1988 and Commodore 64 in 1989, and in 1990 it was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. [9] The pair also appeared in the 1990 film Side Out as the nemesis team of Rollo Vincent (Stoklos) and Billy Cross (Smith). [10] [1]
Smith had a brief career as a television actor, appearing most notably on an episode of Magnum, P.I. as Magnum's volleyball partner who winds up dead under suspicious circumstances. [1]
In 1990, Smith was selected as one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" by People. [6]