Nikolay Karpol

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]

Nikolay Karpol
Nikolay Karpol at the Kremlin in 2018
Personal information
Full name	Nikolay Vasilyevich Karpol
Nickname	The Howling Bear
Born	(1938-05-01) 1 May 1938 (age 87) Bereznica, Polesie Voivodeship, Second Polish Republic
Coaching information
Previous teams coached Years Teams 1969–present VC Uralochka-NTMK Yekaterinburg

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

• 1990 – Gold medal (with URS)
• 1994 – (with RUS)
• 1998 – (with RUS)
• 2002 – (with RUS)

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

• 1993 – Third Place (with RUS)
• 1997 – Champion (with RUS)
• 2001 – Runner-Up (with RUS)

Grand-prix

• 1993 - Bronze medal (with RUS)
• 1996 - Bronze medal (with RUS)
• 1997 - Gold medal (with RUS)
• 1998 - Silver medal (with RUS)
• 1999 - Gold medal (with RUS)
• 2000 - Silver medal (with RUS)
• 2002 - Gold medal (with RUS)
• 2001 - Bronze medal (with RUS)
• 2003 - Silver medal (with RUS)

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