Micah Christenson
Micah Makanamaikalani Christenson (born May 8, 1993) is an American volleyball player, member of the United States men's national volleyball team and Russian club Zenit Kazan. He is a Bronze medalist of the Olympic Games Rio 2016, gold medalist of the 2014 World League and 2015 World Cup, 2013 NORCECA Champion. Personal life. Christenson was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Robert and Charlene Christenson. His parents both attended the University of Hawaii at Hilo, where his father, Robert, played basketball and his mother, Charlene, won three volleyball national championships and was named a two-time All-American . His sister, Joanna, played volleyball at Southern Utah University. Christenson began playing club volleyball in 2005 with Asics Quicksilver; he also played basketball and was two time Gatorade Player of the year in Hawai'i. Christenson is married to Brooke Christenson. They have two sons together. Christenson is a Christian. Career. Christenson was a star basketball and volleyball player for Kamehameha Schools Kapālama in Honolulu, graduating in 2011. He led his teams to three state championship titles (basketball in 2009 and 2011, and volleyball in 2011) and played in a total of six state championship games. He attended the University of  Southern California and played for the USC Trojans men's volleyball team. He was a starter on the U.S. Junior National Team that won a gold medal in the 2010 NORCECA Junior Championship in Canada and also played the FIVB 2009 Boy's Youth World Championship in Italy. In 2011 he played for the U.S. Junior National Team during the 2011 FIVB Men’s Junior World Championship in Brazil where the team placed fourth, the U.S.’s highest finish at the tournament to date. He captained the U.S. Junior National Team to win a gold medal at the 2012 NORCECA  Men's Junior Continental Championship in Colorado Springs. He was supposed to play on the 2013 U.S. Men’s Junior National Team but got called up to the senior team instead. He debuted with the U.S. national team at the NORCECA Championship, which USA won; Christenson was named "Best Server" and "Best Setter" in this tournament. He also competed in the 2013 FIVB World Grand Champions Cup. In 2014 he won the gold medal at the World League, held in Florence, Italy. He began senior-level competition at age 20. He is the youngest starting setter to ever compete for  the U.S. on a national team for both junior level and senior level. At club level, he won 2016-2017 Superlega, Italy's top championship, with Cucine Lube Civitanova. As of 2021, he signed a two-year contract to play in the Russian club, Zenit Kazan, a team which already had some of Russia's greatest spikers from Maxim Mikhaylov to Dmitri Volkov. Suffering only one loss in the entirety of the 2020 Russian SuperLeague in their first match against Dynamo Moscow , Kazan was able to win the first season of the Superleague.