International Volleyball Hall induction week: Yumilka Ruiz of Cuba

It’s induction week at the International Volleyball Hall of Fame in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The ceremony is Saturday. Six inductees will join the previous 161 players, coaches, administrators and leaders from 25 countries who have already been enshrined in the museum at the birthplace of volleyball. We have stories on all six, continuing with Yumilka Ruiz of Cuba:

You could argue that the Cuban national women’s volleyball team in the 1990s and early 2000s was the greatest dynasty in the sport’s history. 

Consider that the “Caribbean Girls” (Las Morenas del Caribe) won Olympic gold medals in three consecutive Games, which has never happened before or since. They added a bronze in 2004 for good measure and also won World Championships in 1994 and 1998.

A whopping five members of those dominant Cuban teams are already in the International Volleyball Hall of Fame, along with their coach Eugenio George.

A sixth will be added on October 21 when Yumilka Ruiz joins her teammates in volleyball immortality. 

“For my country, (the Hall honor) has a great meaning,” Ruiz said. “Cuba has six players, including me, and the best coach in the world exalted to this recognition, which is the maximum that an athlete in the world can aspire to. 

‘I think there are NO words to describe the happiness and pride that is felt.”

Ruiz, at just 5-foot-10 (1.79m), was an outside hitter who won gold in the 1996 Atlanta Games and again in 2000 in Sydney. Ruiz was the captain of the 2004 team that won bronze and her Olympic career ended in 2008 when the Cubans finished fourth.

“I had the opportunity to belong to two generations of different players,” Ruiz said. “I played on the national team from 1993 until 2000 with those athletes who managed to win three Olympic gold medals in a row. 

“It was a wonderful experience. 

“Then a new generation arrived almost everywhere. In its entirety, I became captain of that team, in which I had to always be in the lead in all the preparations to get them to follow me. Both were wonderful teams, (but) in one I had a greater role than in the other.”

Those Cuban teams were characterized by players like Ruiz, who could seemingly jump out of the gym, were extremely quick and could hit the ball as hard as could be imagined.

But to focus on Ruiz’s accomplishments solely with the Cuban national team would be to shortchange her legacy. 

Ruiz was an outstanding club player in…