VOLLEYBALL PLAYERS from Latvia

Top 2

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Latvian Volleyball Players of all time. This list of famous Latvian Volleyball Players is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Mārtiņš Pļaviņš (1985 - )

With an HPI of 29.49, Mārtiņš Pļaviņš is the most famous Latvian Volleyball Player.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages on wikipedia.

Mārtiņš Pļaviņš (born 8 May 1985 in Riga) is a Latvian beach volleyball player. He teamed up with Aleksandrs Samoilovs in 2004. Pļaviņš and team mate Samoilovs represented Latvia at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China after which they stopped playing together. At the 2008 Olympics, the #21-ranked Latvian team achieved a major upset in the preliminary round, beating the #1-ranked team of Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser (United States). Latvian team won its preliminary round group and in round of 16 lost to Austrian team Florian Gosch and Alexander Horst. After the 2008 Olympics, he began playing together with Jānis Šmēdiņš. At the 2010 European Beach Volleyball Championships, Pļaviņš and Šmēdiņš won the bronze medal. They followed this up by winning the bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics. They lost to Rego and Cerutti of Brazil in the semi-final but beat Nummerdor and Schuil of the Netherlands in the bronze medal match.

2. Jānis Šmēdiņš (1987 - )

With an HPI of 24.85, Jānis Šmēdiņš is the 2nd most famous Latvian Volleyball Player.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Jānis Šmēdiņš (born 31 July 1987) is a Latvian beach volleyball player. From 2008 to 2012, he played together with Mārtiņš Pļaviņš. They won the bronze medal at the European Championships 2010. Two years later, they won the bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. After 2012, he played with Aleksandrs Samoilovs, and the duo were among world leaders before 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.