Eric Fonoimoana

Eric Fonoimoana
portrait
birthday	7th June 1969
place of birth	Manhattan Beach (California), United States
partner	1991–1997 various partners 1997–2001 Dain Blanton 2002–2003 Dax Holdren 2003–2004 Kevin Wong 2005–2008 various partners
successes
2000 - Olympic Champion 2002 - MVP of the AVP Tour
(As of July 1, 2010)

Eric Fonoimoana (born June 7, 1969 in Manhattan Beach , United States ) is an American beach volleyball player and Olympic champion.

Career

From 1991 to 1997, Eric Fonoimoana played with many different partners. His greatest successes during this time were his first victory on the 1994 AVP Tour in Baltimore with Scott Ayakatubby and second place in his first FIVB tournament with Mike Whitmarsh at Carolina Beach in Puerto Rico .

From the end of 1997 Eric Fonoimoana joined Dain Blanton . The two won three tournaments on the American tour by 2000. On the FIVB world tour, the two Americans could not win a single tournament until mid-September 2000. At the Olympic Games in Sydney , however, they won the gold medal with a final victory over the Brazilians Zé Marco and Ricardo . The two played together until the end of 2001; their biggest achievement in the last year of their collaboration was a runner-up in Hermosa Beach.

2002 was Fonoimoana's most successful year on the AVP tour. He won four titles with Dax Holdren and was named Most Valuable Player ( MVP ) of the Year. This was followed by another title with Holdren in 2003, a victory with his new partner Kevin Wong in the same year and one tournament each with Wong and Mike Lambert in 2004. Fonoimoana has won at least one title per year for seven consecutive years since 1998 with five different partners.

In the years to come, the Californian still frequently changed his partners, played a few tournaments with his cousin Albert Hannemann as well as with the colleague of his greatest success, Dain Blanton, before ending his career at the end of 2008.

Private

Eric Fonoimoana grew up in Manhattan Beach, California, the youngest of six siblings. His sister Lelei competed as a swimmer for the United States team at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal . Like his parents, Eric Fonoimoana attended Mira Costa High School and started volleyball there . He then studied at the University of Santa Barbara and received a PhD in sociology . Today he lives in Hermosa Beach with his wife, Eliza .

In the spring of 2000 Fonoimoana founded the charitable organization "Dig for Kids", which should offer children from less wealthy income groups tutoring and advice on school matters as well as qualified volleyball training. By winning the Californian gold medal, many sponsors became aware of this project, so that over 2,800 students have benefited from the facility.

Web links

• Eric Fonoimoana in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Profile in the Beach Volleyball Database (English)
• Biography at Samoa Live ( Memento from December 16, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
• Team USA: A decade later: Dain Blanton and Eric Fonoimoana (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Beach Volleyball Database
2. ^ Digs for Kids