Nikolay Karpol
Russian women's volleyball coach (born 1938)
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Nikolay Vasiliyevich Karpol (Russian: Николай Васильевич Карполь; born 1 May 1938) is a Russian women's volleyball coach and a longstanding coach of the Soviet national team (then the Commonwealth of Independent States team of 1992 following the collapse of the USSR) and later the Russia women's national volleyball team. Known as The Howling Bear,[1] Karpol was a regular at the Olympic Games, with his teams usually earning a last call on the Olympic podium, winning gold medals in 1980 and 1988 and taking the silver medals in 1992, 2000,[2] and 2004, for a total of five Olympic medals.[3] In 2020, he set a new world record by coaching Uralochka for 51 years.[4][5]
Bereznica, Polesie Voivodeship, Second Polish Republic
| Nikolay Karpol | |||||||
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Nikolay Karpol at the Kremlin in 2018 | |||||||
| Personal information | |||||||
| Full name | Nikolay Vasilyevich Karpol | ||||||
| Nickname | The Howling Bear | ||||||
| Born | 1 May 1938 Bereznica, Polesie Voivodeship, Second Polish Republic | ||||||
| Coaching information | |||||||
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Karpol coached the Soviet women to the gold medal at the 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle[6] and the Russian women to the gold medal at the 1994 Goodwill Games in Saint Petersburg.[7][8]
In 2009, Karpol was inducted into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame.[3][9]
Coaching and Administrative Awards
Summer Olympic Games
- 1980 Moscow –
Gold medal (with 
URS) - 1988 Seoul – Gold medal (with URS)
- 1992 Barcelona –
Silver medal (with 
EUN) - 2000 Sydney – Silver medal (with
RUS) - 2004 Athens – Silver medal (with RUS)
FIVB World Championships
European Championships
- 1977 - Gold medal (with URS)
- 1979 - Gold medal (with URS)
- 1981 - Silver medal (with URS)
- 1983 - Silver medal (with URS)
- 1985 - Gold medal (with URS)
- 1987 - Silver medal (with URS)
- 1989 - Gold medal (with URS)
- 1991 - Gold medal (with URS)
- 1993 - Gold medal (with RUS)
- 1995 -
Bronze medal (with RUS) - 1997 - Gold medal (with RUS)
- 1999 - Gold medal (with RUS)
- 2001 - Gold medal (with RUS)
- 2005 - Bronze medal (with RUS)
- 2007 - Bronze medal (with RUS)
World Grand Champions Cup
Grand-prix
CEV Champions League
- 1981 -
Champion (with 
Uralochka Sverdlovsk) - 1982 - Champion (with Uralochka Sverdlovsk)
- 1983 - Champion (with Uralochka Sverdlovsk)
- 1987 - Champion (with Uralochka Sverdlovsk)
- 1988 -
Runner-Up (with Uralochka Sverdlovsk) - 1989 - Champion (with Uralochka Sverdlovsk)
- 1990 - Champion (with Uralochka Sverdlovsk)
- 1991 - Runner-Up (with Uralochka Sverdlovsk)
- 1992 -
Third Place (with Uralochka Yekaterinburg) - 1993 - Third Place (with Uralochka Yekaterinburg)
- 1994 - Champion (with Uralochka Yekaterinburg)
- 1995 - Champion (with Uralochka Yekaterinburg)
- 1996 - Runner-Up (with Uralochka Yekaterinburg)
- 1997 - Runner-Up (with Uralochka Yekaterinburg)
- 2000 - Runner-Up (with Uralochka Yekaterinburg)
- 2001 - Third Place (with Uralochka Yekaterinburg)
- 2003 - Runner-Up (with Uralochka Yekaterinburg)
Croatian journalist and publicist Tomislav Birtic published a book "Karpol: Lunatics - That's What I Need".[10]
Honours and awards
- Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 3rd class
- Honoured Worker of Physical Culture, Russia
- Order of Friendship
- Order of the Red Banner of Labour
- Order of Friendship of Peoples
- Honorary Citizen of the Sverdlovsk Oblast
