The greatest Cuban female volleyball legend, Regla Torres, will work alongside the greatest Russian coaching volleyball legend, Nikolay Karpol.
Two of the greatest volleyball legends on the planet, one as a player and the other as a coach, will collaborate in Uralochka-NTMK, the most successful club in Soviet and Russian women’s volleyball history, with 25 national championship titles combined. Torres, a three-time Olympic gold medalist from Cuba, has joined the coaching staff led by Karpol (the USSR’s head coach during their two Olympic Games victories in 1980 and 1988). As a member of the Cuba Women’s National Team, Torres won three Olympics (1992, 1996, 2000), two FIVB World Championships (1994, 1998), and two FIVB World Cups (1991, 1995), as well as many other world, European, and national tournaments and individual awards. In 2001, the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) recognized her as the Best Player of the 20th Century.
At the age of 27, the former middle blocker ended her playing career on the national team, and at the age of 30, she decided to completely end it. Since 2008, she has worked as a coach in the Cuba Women’s National Team.