Three Ex-Trojans Make USA Men's Volleyball Olympic Team
July 09, 2004 | Men's Volleyball
July 9, 2004
Former Trojans Donald Suxho, Brook Billings and Gabe Gardner today (July 9) were named to the USA men's volleyball team that will compete in the 2004 Athens Olympics.
USC is the only school with more than one representative on the USA squad.
This will be the first Olympic appearance for all three players. Suxho (1997-2000 USC letterman), a native of Albania, was the collegiate National Player of the Year as a Trojan senior in 2000. Billings (1999-2002) was a first team All-American as a USC sophomore in 2000 after earning National Freshman of the Year honors in 1999. Gardner (1996-97) was a Freshman All-American at USC in 1996 before transferring to Stanford.
Suxho is a setter, Billings an opposite hitter and Gardner an outside hitter.
The USA men have a tough draw for the preliminary round. Team USA starts off on Aug. 15 against the world's second-ranked team, Italy, which captured the bronze medal at the 2000 Olympic Games. The USA men will then play the Netherlands (Aug. 17), 2000 silver medalist Russia (Aug. 19), Australia (Aug. 21) and Brazil (Aug. 23), the world's No. 1-ranked team, to close out pool play.
For the men's Olympic indoor volleyball competition, which starts on Aug. 15, Pool A consists of Argentina, France, Greece, Poland, Serbia and Montenegro and Tunisia, while Pool B features Australia, Brazil, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia and the USA.
Team USA, which qualified for Athens by winning the NORCECA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in January, is currently 14-4 on the season and ranked No. 6 in the world. It recently won the USA Global Challenge in Austin, Tex., by defeating No. 5 Russia, the silver medalist at the 2000 Olympic Games, in five sets on July 5.
Nine other Trojan men's volleyball alums have participated in the Olympics: Dick Hammer and Ronnie Lang in 1964, Celso Kalache in 1972 and 1976 for Brazil, Dusty Dvorak and Pat Powers in 1984, Steve Timmons in 1984, 1988 and 1992, Nick Becker and Dan Greenbaum in 1992 and Bryan Ivie in 1992 and 1996. Dvorak, Powers and Timmons won gold medals in 1984, while Timmons won another gold in 1988. Timmons, Becker, Greenbaum and Ivie captured bronzes in 1992.
USC has sent more athletes to the Olympic Games than any other university. From 1904 to 2000, there have been 340 athletes who attended USC before, during or after their Olympic appearance. They have collected 217 medals (104 gold, 59 silver and 54 bronze), including at least one gold medal in every summer Olympics since 1912.
