Dain Blanton is an American beach volleyball player who won the gold medal in Beach Volleyball in the 2000 Olympic Games, with partner Eric Fonoimoana. He returned to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece with partner Jeff Nygaard, becoming the first two-time U.S. male Beach Volleyball Olympian.
Career
One of the only players in the history of volleyball to win a championship at every level of the game. As a high school senior in 1990, Blanton was named the Orange CountyPlayer of the Year, Most Valuable Player of the Pacific Coast League and earned all-American honors at the Junior Olympics. Blanton was also an All-State Basketball player who led Laguna Beach to the CIF Finals in 1990. He attended Pepperdine University where he was an All-American and guided The Waves to a National Volleyball Championship in 1992 as a sophomore. He is known for his fast serve holding the AVP record for 11 aces in a single game to 15 in Vail, Colorado in 1997. After winning gold at the 2000 Olympics, Blanton and Fonoimoana broke their partnership because of rule changes that went into effect in 2001.. Height became a deciding factor because the new rules provided an advantage for a full-time tall blocker at the net. They went separate ways in search of Big Blockers. In the 2004 Olympics, Blanton and Nygaard were seeded eighth, but failed to advance out of pool play. Currently Dain is the Analyst for Professional Beach Volleyball worldwide covering the FIVB, AVP, NVL (National Volleyball League, and the Jose Cuervo Pro Beach Series as well as the Sideline Reporter for the NBA Los Angeles Clippers. His new career in Sports Broadcasting has involved working with ABC, NBC, ESPN, Fox Sports Net and Universal Sports Network. He is covering many sports including NBA, Beach Volleyball, MLB, College Basketball and College Football. Dain also does many motivational speaking events each year to inspire and be a role model to many. Dain was the runner-up to Andrew Firestone on the third season of ABC television network reality show The Bachelor.
